Devastating Decline in the Practice of the Faith Must be Fiercely Repelled

Closing schools, merging parishes, dwindling vocations and Mass attendance at historic lows, are all current devastating trends within the Catholic Church in the United States.  But far from being accepted as the new normal, these harsh realities must be fiercely repelled.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a research arm of the Catholic Church, details the disastrous decline within the US.  Since 1970 there are 37% fewer priests, 72% fewer nuns, 65% fewer brothers and 45% fewer Catholic elementary schools, all while the number of parish registered Catholics has increased by 43%.

But most distressing of all is the catastrophic collapse of faithful attendance at Sunday Mass, which has tanked to 23% nationwide.  This marks a 52% drop since 1970 and a 68% drop since 1955.  Most remarkable is that this 23% attendance number has consistently remained this way for the last 18 years!

It’s no wonder why Catholic schools and parishes are having such a difficult time.  Too many parishioners are not invested in their faith and so are not present to provide the finances needed to properly fund the schools and the parishes.  And their children that may have had vocations are not exposed to the greatness and beauty of the faith.

We must ask ourselves why this is so. How is it that so many Catholics have lost their way and are no longer convinced that the Catholic Faith, and in particular the Mass, has benefit for them?

There is an answer and it’s not a complicated one.

How many of us have been in conversations with friends and loved ones regarding the importance of attending Mass and hear the following, “Why do I need to go to Mass?  I’m a good person.  I pray.  What benefit does it have for me?  What difference does it make?  Give me one logical reason why I need to be there?”  These are perfectly reasonable questions.  And there is a perfectly reasonable answer to all of them.  The problem is that they haven’t heard it!

Saint Paul reminds us that Faith comes through hearing.

“Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”  Romans 10:17

People respond to logic and reason.  When individuals realize that something has great benefit for them, they participate.  The present focus on bodily health has lead to overwhelming success of the entire workout industry and of supermarkets and restaurants selling healthy food choices.  This change happened because healthy living campaigns used logic and reason to illuminate sound research on the benefits of taking good care of the human body.  And so people responded.

The same approach must be employed here.  The good news is that the Church provides the answers using logic and reason.  They just need to be illuminated and disseminated.  If we do this, people will respond.  It’s not complicated.  They will recognize the great benefit and participate.  These shattering statistics can be completely turned around for nothing is impossible for God.  Here’s an explanation that was posted in 2016 that cuts right to the chase to providing the Church’s answer to the questions above.

http://www.catholic365.com/article/4137/perfect-sense-a-common-sense-explanation-of-why-each-one-of-us-needs-to-attend-mass-on-sundays-and-holy-days.html

There is no reason for us as Catholics to succumb to a pathetic new normal.  There is no surrender!  We simply have to recognize that when we go to battle, we fight with atomic cannons against an enemy that counters with puny little guns.  When we fight, we fight alongside the Triune God and the Queen of Heaven and Earth.  The enemy we fight fears the weapons that we possess; the Mass, the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Saints, just to name a few.  And there is no reason for us to fear.

Pope Saint Pius X had an expression that he often used as a directive to the laity to evangelize.  It was to “Restore All Things in Christ!”  By that he meant that it’s the laity’s role to go to our homes and our workplaces, wherever we go, and restore all things in Christ.  Restore education, economics, politics and the social order.  This is where the laity operates.  And then recall the famous words spoken by our beloved Pope Saint John Paul II, “Be Not Afraid!”  Put those two expressions together and we have our marching orders, “Restore All Things in Christ and Be Not Afraid!”