According to the Catholic News Service (HERE), The Milwaukee Archdiocese will close or consolidate 103 of its 203 parishes through 2020. A brief trip to the Archdiocesan website shows no mention of this at all. Indeed, I had to dig a bit to find this astonishing fact. Have Church closings become so common as to be unremarkable?
What are we to make of this and what can we learn? According to the article, Archdiocesan officials pointed to three principal factors that have and are leading to these closings:
•The number of priest retirements will exceed ordinations, resulting in a projected 40 percent reduction in the number of priests serving in parish ministry.
•The costs of operating parishes and funding ministries are escalating rapidly and parishes can gain economies of scale by collaborating with other parishes.
•The mission of the church can be carried out more effectively by combining efforts and sharing resources.
It is unclear in the article whether all (or any) of these parishes will be closed and torn down, or if they will become, what we used to call “missions” of another parish and what many like to call today, “clusters.”
Respectful of the Archdiocesan statement, I would like to propose that there are more factors that have led to this day than what they state, and that we can and must see this as a teaching moment, and a call to repentance for all of us in the Church.
The fact is, these Churches were once needed and full. One may want to point to demographic shifts. It is possible that, due to a loss of industry, the overall population of Milwaukee has dropped. There has been a slight drop, from 741,000 in 1960 to the 594,000 of today. But this is not the 50% loss reflected by the parish closings. Others argue that the ethnic subdivisions that caused the formation of many of these parishes are now gone. Perhaps, but again, the closing parishes were once full of human beings, whatever their ethnicity. The closing parishes were once going concerns. Now they are not.
There is just simply no avoiding the fact that, nationwide, only 25-27% of Catholics go to Mass. These numbers, though stable in the last ten years or so are far lower than the 75-80% attendance in the 1950s and before. Family sizes, birthrates etc. are also dreadfully low among Catholics.
Financially, Catholics give 0nly 1-2% of their income to the parish. This number compares poorly with most Protestant denominations in which Biblical tithing is more of a tradition.
Here then is the teaching point: we cannot sustain the Church in its present form with such poor attendance, poor participation and small monetary support.
There will surely be the predictable venom directed at the Church hierarchy by some Catholics, “How dare the bishop close our Church.” But again it is a clear truth that parishes need people to survive. A parish is not a building, it is the people untied with their pastors and bishops.
One may also ask the parishes that will be closed or clustered, a few questions, and these questions teach, even as they ask:
1. When did you start to notice a significant decline in membership?
2. What response was made to that decline?
3. Did the pastor and people work to evangelize?
4. Were drifting members ever contacted and encouraged to return?
5. How did the older members of the congregation fail to hand on the faith effectively to their children?
6. How did the Pastor and catechetical staff fail to hand on the faith effectively to the next generation?
7. What sort of financial plan was developed to secure the Parish’s ability to pay its bills?
8. When was the last time there was a vocation from this parish?
9. What is done to foster vocations?
10. Has the parish carefully maintained its buildings, or are they in disrepair?
11. How open is the parish to the wider community in which it exists?
12. Has the parish simply depended on the Archdiocese for vocations and monetary shortfalls or has it been carrying its load?
13. Did the pastor ever really level with his people as to how critical the problems were becoming in both the parish and the Diocese?
14. How did things get this bad?
Some years ago I was sent to a parish where the numbers had been declining. The school had just been closed. And while we were not in critical condition, a few more years of numbers like we had, would surely lead to the “Last one out, please turn out the lights” scenario.
I simply went to the pulpit and reminded the parishioners, “This is your parish and you will decide whether it remains into the future.” I presented the numbers, showed how they had dropped over the years. I showed the budget shortfall and indicated that, if things did not improve by midyear, we’d have to look for cuts in services etc. I also preached on biblical tithing and finally reminded them again, “This is your parish. You will decide its future.”
To their credit they responded very well. The collection came right up and we worked together to develop an evangelization plan. Attendance was up by 20% in two years. And while occasional reminders were needed, and certain bumps in the road did occur, things started going in the right direction.
It was a teaching moment and the people of God responded well. Thank God too, all these efforts took place before the parish reached critical condition and there was no synergy to effect real change.
I do not know all the details of the Milwaukee situation and I do not presuppose that the none of the efforts I mention here were untried. But all of us have to sober up and realize that business as usual isn’t going to cut it. The Catholic Church in America, with certain local exceptions, is in a real downsize mode and this has happened on our watch. We share a collective responsibility for the decline of our Church, clergy and people alike.
Arguing about whose most to blame or what specifically is the one root cause is just another distraction. The fact is, most polls show that the vast majority of Catholics who have left, or are away from the Church, did not leave over matters of doctrine, moral teachings, or liturgy. The fact is they just drifted.
We can either keep closing parishes and do the blame thing or we can get to work. If every church-going Catholic would see it as a duty to bring one soul (just one) back to God’s house this year, our numbers could double just that quickly.
It’s time, far passed time, to get to work.
For once, I won’t resort to a Traddie argument. In this case, it’s pretty simple–all the Catholics we should have been growing over the last fifty years have been aborted and contracepted out of existence. Has to be at least a 20 or 30 percent gap.
Not only is that people in the pews, it’s vocations. That means fewer priests (including TLM-qualified priests), and fewer nuns. The latter means school closings, which is itself precipitated by fewer kids–supply and demand both under-perform.
However, a secondary element has to be the rotten liturgy. That’s driven all the young men out of parishes. You really can’t totally dismiss that, since it’s how most Catholics have 100% of their experience with the Church.
Hear hear. While I am sympathetic to the solution of bringing “one soul back to God’s house”, the moment he sees that church is the same old triviality it was that caused him to drift away, he won’t stay for long. Who can blame him?
No the problem isn’t the liturgy, it is that Catholic lay people got lazy because at one time we had abundent Religious to do all the heavy lifting concerning evangelism and what not. Now the Religious are no longer a significant presence. We as Catholics have to stand up and take over these rolls that are no longer filled and go out and proclaim the message of Christ. First to our own people and then to the world. Also the in fighting between faithful Catholics needs to cease being filled with vitriol and should be done with charity.
These churches were once needed and full. Why did the need become lacking? What happened between 1950 and now that would cause a decline in faithful support and attendance? It’s definitely complicated. I don’t see a Christian population increasing in this progressive social order. I doubt vocations will increase or sustain at an optimum level in a society marginalizing the significance of faith based communities. This is no longer one nation under God, indivisible. Justice and liberty have turned social norms upside down. The great society has come home to roost and God is not on it’s side. The Church is going to have to come to terms with the fact that it has enemies who have been working diligently in a long concerted effort to defeat it’s dogmas and scriptural teachings in the public setting. The Church better come up with a plan, organize, and coordinate or we will all be lambs for the slaughter. Children today as started out in the sixties are far more influenced by a mass media society than by what their parents can control. We can lead them to water but they desire the koolade advertised in mass media.
Not to sound like an anti ‘novus ordo’ guy but seriously the Traditional parishes I’ve seen are booming. Women entering the convent, seminarians,etc. Are there financial issues? Sure but that is across the board due to us being cheap (though we will buy super bowl tickets, the newest iphone, whatever without batting an eye). Example, I went to my local parish b/c a bud of mine bought me tickets for Panther game so I was extremely sad that this meant I would miss the TLM at noon an hour away from me. We had the normal clapping, people in t-shirts, a weak homily by the deacon, & a stampede after Fr left the Church after final blessing (& it wasn’t slammed). Usually there are 15 people still giving thanksgiving after Mass at the TLM parish but I wasn’t barely into my thanksgiving after Mass & they were turning the lights off & locking the doors at the local novus ordo parish. It was like cockroaches running out of a room. I say this going ‘are we shocked?” People have become lukewarm at best (I was there until brother put foot up my butt & I read myself back in) & then the financial issue is from diocese having to give millions to law suits for priests acting badly (Deo gratias that we are cleaning house).
Truly is sad but we shouldn’t be shocked. This is expected from the past decades of the smoke of satan & modernism. Praying daily for the end to that cancer that is modernism.
Pax Christi, Msgr!
I understand your personal aversion to the modern parish setting, I see you don’t care for it, I get that. But honestly, Steve, the drifters that I talk to just aren’t mentioning the things you list (uncharitably I might add—avoid unnecessary hyperbole when making a point). Most of them I talk with mention not the lack of silence for prayer after mass etc., but just the opposite, a sense of cold indifference and of feeling unwelcome upon entering a Catholic Church. Most of them drifted not because they could pray in a silent church, but because they were unconnected to the people around them.
People are “unconnected with the people around them” when they don’t share the same worldview. Catholics once shared the same worldview–they had a shared culture and norms–but over the last fifty years this has changed.
I think this is the key Monsignor. Humans are created by God with a need for community. Having a reverential atmosphere is of course extremely important, but above all our Churches should foster a sense of community. The very center of our Faith is Holy Communion. How can we say we love Christ when we refuse to talk to our brothers? The lack of community in Catholic parishes is in my opinion the #1 reason for their failure. If you get community right everything else falls into place, including proper reverence!
This is in line with what I know of drifters. What comes up again and again is most frequently ‘no one knew me’, ‘no one paid attention’ , ‘no one offered to help’ . Specific examples were long time parishioners who became ill who were never visited – or even had a phone call – from any official-type from the parish, much less one of the priests; no one noticing that people on the lector list hadn’t been to Mass in months/years. Trying to arrange a funeral and being told ‘can’t, there’s no priest, because the bishop has called them all away for retreat.’ That last one occurred in my family and I blame the bishop, and wrote him about it. He/whoever replied didn’t get it.
You’ve GOT to pay attention to people.
Better liturgy might help a little, but not without noticing the people.
This was the reason why my mom turned away from her parish — and the Church. Her elderly friend was a tireless volunteer for the parish, but when gravely ill and homebound –no longer ‘useful’ to the parish — the priest never found time to visit her and she left the ‘radar’ of the parishioners since she was no longer able to attend daily Mass.
This poisoned my mom — I’m not sure if she ever did forgive the pastor…though I pray daily that she confessed it when another priest (my pastor) heard her last confession.
I myself attend exclusively either the traditional mass or an Ordinariate mass using the English missal. I’ve observed the same things as Steve. And yes, I do think that it was a grave mistake to make nearly all the changes we made to the mass in the 60′s.
And yet: The fact remains that our forebears who pushed through or acquiesced in those changes had grown up with and been formed by the traditional mass. It didn’t keep them from running off the rails. And the same is true for the 50%+ who “drifted away,” for whatever reason, from the Church. Clearly, the traditional mass is not a guarantee of spiritual vitality. It’s an important premise for it (in the Latin rite), however.
People drifted away for lots of reasons. I don’t think (alas) that vast numbers were outraged traddies – though the enormous changes in the liturgy were disorienting to many Catholics, and not helpful (quite often, fairly lethal to) to proper spiritual formation in most cases. Some did leave because of objections to Church teachings. But I do think that many left, as Msgr Pope says, because they no longer felt welcome or part of the parish in the same way. The old ethnic parishes were abandoned for sterile worship boxes in the suburbs, and too often the old neighborhood sense of community was not replicated or replaced. And, let’s be honest with ourselves: A lot of Catholics in the 50′s had become “cultural Catholics.” They did it because that was what was expected of them. It was a Catholicism reduced to moralism and rote ceremony. When the social element was gone, and the ceremony and old rules stripped away, there was little to keep them going to mass.
And I have heard that complaint from family members who have drifted away. They *do* usually miss the beauty of the traditional sacraments (even as indifferently as they were sometimes celebrated). But mainly they just don’t feel part of the community. Being a Catholic is *not* just about having a social club, but it is a part of how we’re formed and supported in the faith. I quite fervently endorse silence in the pews before and after mass, as Steve says, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be warm and welcoming in the narthex or the social hall. And (let us also be honest), too often traditionalist communities are not as welcoming as they could be. But then again, neither are many regular parishes, either.
Evangelizing and forming real communities of friendship (and kinship) are essential, and too often we’ve failed at that. It’s not enough by itself to sustain the faith – but it surely is an important building block for it for most people.
Thank you, Msgr. Pope, for a thoughtful column on this painful subject. Truly, whether our parishes survive or not is up to us. Bishops have wrongly closed some parishes that were still viable, but I’ve hardly ever heard of a vibrant, growing, financially solid parish being shut down.
Solid talk given on the Catholic counter revolution http://youtu.be/UJriQn7PgC8
The good news is that many of the new Priests coming out of the Seminary are not afraid to speak the truth in love. Many are Pope John Paul II Priests, and now Pope Benedict XVI Priests, and have the love of Christ that is necessary to inspire their parishes. We will be a smaller Church initially, but will grow again.
Another good sign is that graduates of the truly Catholic Colleges, especially those top schools, rated by the Cardinal Newman Society, are becoming priests and religious sisters, working as singles, and marrying, having beautiful families, and working and living in parishes around the country. They are bringing new life, new ideas, and talents to parishes.
Let’s hope and pray that the upcoming “Year of Faith” will serve as a “springboard” to: growing in our own faith – and sharing our time, talent, and treasure to help make our parishes vibrant and holy parishes.
This post saddens me because in the local area there are a few priests that don’t want to give way to the neocatechumenal way (A church movement that has the doors open to by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI). They have no excuses, yet I see church participation diminish. Why is it they don’t want to see a vibrant group of people forming true families and discovering their baptism. Very sad indeed!
Some Priests don’t particularly like the exclusivity of the NC Way, an almost gnostic mystagogia that that the Neocatechumical Way seems to advocate, and the cultish aspect of separate Masses that violate the liturgical norms.
Sir you are totally incorrect. The neocatechumenal way has church approval for all its Liturgical forms and norms. The Presbyter most times is a member of the community and he takes on the presence of Jesus in the Liturgy. You are very much mistaken. We go deeper into the scriptures and re discover or Baptism. It often means harder toil for the presbyter. Our Holy Father has called for small communities
Amen.
Although I was recently trained that one Mass experience is the optimal goal and the Mass is not about the individual as much as a communal experience; my experience, based on what I see in these comments as well as what I hear from those who I attend Church with, is people need different things to fully participate in the Liturgy. What is profound for you in a TLM is distant and cold for another. Why were there so many ethnic churches in places like Pittsburgh and Milwaukee? Why a Polish Church next to an Irish church both just blocks away? The Church asks us to share our time and talent. And frankly, we don’t always do a good job at accepting a person’s talents and gifts.
I have a specific set of gifts that I have freely shared with my Church since High School. It’s a set of gifts that many commenting on this blog feel are not gifts worthy of the Church. But I watch many come to a place of conversion and peace because of the gift God has given me. I open doors that allow others with other gifts to help bring God’s Grace the rest of the way. I have traveled this road for almost 35 years now, I grieve that my gifts are not accepted by many in the new combined parishes of today. But I rejoice that God has provided and I am able to continue the work He started in my over 35 years ago.
My experiences are not your experiences, my gifts reach those you can not and visa versa, maybe when we accept all the gifts God has provided the Church, the Church will once again be the life giving thing God wants of it’s Church.
“Why were there so many ethnic churches in places like Pittsburgh and Milwaukee?”
Catholics who had immigrated to this strange new alien land stuck together with those with whom they had the most in common. And often, that included shared language. Many of those parishes used their native tongues. I don’t think that’s surprising or all that unreasonable.
In some ways that was not wholesome – it generated a kind of ethnic insularity in which the Poles or Italians down the street were just as distrusted as the Baptists down the other end. But it had its value, too.
The birds-of-a-feather phenomenon applied not only to Catholics but also to other denominations & faiths. My maternal grandmother grew up in a German community in Big Falls, WI. Her Lutheran baptismal and confirmation certificates are auf Deutsch. My paternal grandfather, while serving as a Lutheran minister in Lancaster County PA conducted one service in English and another auf Deutsch each week.
The ordinary suggested viri probati as a solution about a generation ago and was rebuffed.
Archbishop Dolan seems to have passed a significant challenge to his successor.
Rome doesn’t care how many parishes are closed.
That said, I do agree with Msgr Pope on the matter of evangelization. It doesn’t get the headlines it might or the local attention it should, but there are a lot of inactive Catholics and other Christians in those Wisconsin neighborhoods. If we’re waiting for the clergy or the institution to do the work for which we were called and commissioned at baptism, then maybe we’re getting off easy only losing fifty percent of our parishes. It could be a lot worse.
“The ordinary suggested viri probati as a solution about a generation ago and was rebuffed.”
The ordinary a generation ago suggested a lot of things, many of them quite incompatible with the Catholic faith. It’s just possible that he didn’t do what few good suggestions he might have had any favors. I’m sorry, Todd, but Rembert Weakland has to share a good deal of the blame for what has become of Catholicism in Milwaukee. We can’t just blame it on the failure to ordain older married men.
But I suppose this is a rabbit hole our host would rather we didn’t go down.
“Rome doesn’t care how many parishes are closed.”
I think that Rome has little control or right to micromanage these questions. Rome’s failure lies mainly in failure to ensure good discipline, doctrine, and episcopal appointments. But Rome can’t fill these empty parishes up, or keep them afloat. As with the sex scandals, the fault lies mainly in us, dear Brutus. Right here in America.
It’s a complex problem. And Archbishop Weakland’s failure to manage his private life wouldn’t seem to impact a constructive suggestion that might well have addressed the obvious problem that even Archbishop Dolan couldn’t fix: maintaining a population of clergy that was provided for in the first half of the 20th century that the old way of doing business doesn’t seem to fit.
As for other matters incompatible with Catholicism, I’m aware of none.
Rome’s failure, in the eyes of others, is a lack of optimism and ingenuity and an overreliance on ideology.
The name is Todd, not Brutus. Get it straight, please. Otherwise, thanks for engaging.
Hello Todd,
Well, we’re going down the rabbit hole here. Msgr Pope may feel free to delete this if he feels it’s too far down. But since you insist, I’ll let Rod Dreher sum up Archbishop Weakland: “Here’s a tiny portion of what the Free Man of Milwaukee has meant for the Church in his city: He directed Catholic schools there to teach kids how to use condoms as part of AIDS education, and approved a graphic sex-education program for parochial-school kids that taught “there is no right and wrong” on the issues of abortion, contraception and premarital sex. He has advocated for gay rights and women’s ordination, bitterly criticized Pope John Paul II, denounced pro-lifers as “fundamentalist,” and declared that one could be both pro-choice and a Catholic in good standing.”
To that I would just two more names: William Effinger and Lawrence Murphy.
There’s a lot of blame to go around, which is Msgr Pope’s point, the one directed to his readership. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t failed by some of our shepherds. And one of them was Archbp. Weakland.
Arguing about whose most to blame or what specifically is the one root cause is just another distraction. The fact is, most polls show that the vast majority of Catholics who have left, or are away from the Church, did not leave over matters of doctrine, moral teachings, or liturgy. The fact is they just drifted.
Well, why do they drift? You are right that it is not one thing. It is not solely the fact that five minutes before Mass starts, it sounds like Friday night at the mall. It is not alone the fact that grown men show up in shorts, teens show up in black concert T-shirts and flip flops, and girls show up that can’t keep the dogs in the kennel. It is not reducible to the music that sounds like it belongs in/at A). a new-age massage parlor B). a campfire C). a merry-go-round D.) a nursery room or E). a rock concert. We cannot lay the blame entirely on the master of ceremon…err…the celebrant who wanders about the the nave during the homily, cracking jokes, riffing the prayers and rubrics, and eliciting applause. It isn’t uniquely the platoon of EMHC’s that swarms the sanctuary (again, often dressed dumpy) for communion distributing the Host in the hand faster than McDonald’s distributes Big Macs.
No, the problem may in fact be, just maybe, that there was a Stonehenge on stage in danger of being crushed by a dwarf…oh sorry…different movie. The problem may in fact be that no one thinks anything serious is going on at Church. As Patton puts it, “They don’t look like soldiers, they don’t act like soldiers. Why should they be expected to fight like soldiers?”
There are just as many who find the Church boring. But I almost guarantee you scott that they’re not leaving over what you describe. They don’t even know what an EMHC is and don’t care about your little pet peeves. Talk to a few, your little annoyances aren’t in their vocabulary. You’re obviously not an evangelizer, just a critic in chief. Just as another reference point, the fact is that the TLM which I celebrate regularly here in DC has not gotten more than 1% of the total attendance in any diocese where it is celebrated. It isn’t just DC its nearby Arlington and all the other dioceses I know of. There is a basic core of 1% to .5 of 1% in most places. That either means that the TLMs aren’t evangelizing or that the problem you describe, and the solution proposed are off target in terms of most drifters.
I’m not sure why my comments seem to have touched a nerve. I haven’t even mentioned the TLM. Believe it or not, I’m not one that thinks a return to the TLM is some magic bullet. I would say that a person doesn’t have to know what a EMHC is to know that something is off when a gaggle of lay-folk descend on the sanctuary. Again, I’m not actually against EHMC’s and don’t think reducing them to less than battalion strength will be the magic bullet. I agree that your average drifter may not be able to articulate what you refer to as my “little pet peeves” (acting like a game-show host during the homily is a pet peeve? Really?), but he knows instinctively that decorum doesn’t match the occasion, and if that isn’t serious, then we shouldn’t be surprised when he concludes that neither is our Sunday obligation.
Oh I dunno, Scott perhaps though your comments touched a nerve when you used language describing Church goers: black concert T-shirts and flip flops, and girls show up that can’t keep the dogs in the kennel. It is not reducible to the music that sounds like it belongs in/at A). a new-age massage parlor B). a campfire C). a merry-go-round D.) a nursery room or E). a rock concert.
Or perhaps when you describe the platoon of EMHC’s that swarms the sanctuary (again, often dressed dumpy) for communion distributing the Host in the hand faster than McDonald’s distributes Big Macs.
I can’t imagine, why you might have touched a nerve when you remarks were so respectful of fellow Catholics and avoided any over generalizations. You were so kind in your remarks, and adult in your descriptions that I can’t imagine what I as “moderator” was thinking in suggesting that your remarks were immoderate and perhaps not the heart of the problem. Silly me.
They are indeed a generalization, but they are real, repeatably findable examples and indicative of an overarching trend of casualness and trivialization. Thus, I don’t think they are out of line or immature at all. Painful, yes.
Msgr. on further reflection, I am regretting the manner in which I presented my thoughts and would ask for your prayers to enlighten me of any blind spots I might have. While I am still convinced that the crux of the problem is that the Faith has succumbed to banal secular therapeutic culture which is most palpable in many liturgies, I realize I stooped to some rather hoary tropes to get that point across. I sincerely want the recovery, health, and blessings of the Church rather than merely to score rhetorical points, and will endeavor to patiently listen to any answer to that end.
Hi Scott!
You will be glad to know that at my local small group we had a discussion on this very issue.
One of the folks was ranting on about grownups in shorts etc. Me, I had previously associated the whole 3 piece suit for church thing as being an example of pharseeism, so we got into the whole “Don’t you realize you’re in the presence of God?” versus the “garments we wear in our Father’s home, should be charity, faith and hospitality” argument, which went on for over an hour.
The upshot was that I agreed that in order to keep my “erring brother” from the sin of irreverence, I would start wearing my work clothes to church (which I have been). On his part, he agreed, that in order to avoid leading me (his “erring sister”) into idolatry, he would make a point of going up to at least one ill-dressed person a week after mass and saying “Hi, I’m X, I’m so glad you worship with us! What is your name!”
We’ll make this parish a hot-bed of charity yet!
Cheers!
W
I agree that the solution is not more TLMs. The many non or seldom-practicing Catholics I know are not longing for more Latin (though a small percentage may be). They would probably respond well though to the bold and impressive intiative you presented to your parish in trouble: “This is your parish and you will decide…”. It is often the feeling that their participation didn’t matter because of the impersonal, institutional, or overly hierarchical perception of “Church” that led to a drifting.
I firmly believe, however, that change does not equal failure, and we need not blame the last generation for failing to pass on the faith–in many ways the faith has been renewed and reinvigorated in the last generation. The question in my mind is how do we move FORWARD in faith, embracing and incorporating the good while ? Perhaps giant and expensive Romanesque buildings are not in the future, but inspite of their beauty that was never at the heart of what “Church” means anyway. Parish communities should indeed be looking to foster vocations to ordained ministry and to marriage, but a good starting point might be to the universal call to holiness, since even those who no longer participate in their parishes often still long for God. Rebuilding a house (on its original foundation) makes for a stronger house, although it may look different from the outside.
I think more traditional masses – celebrated reverently, and hopefully with good chant – *can* and should be part of the solution; they’re theologically richer and more reverent. People may not be clamoring for the traditional sacraments, but that’s mostly because they’ve not been exposed to it (at least if they are under 55 or so).
But it’s not enough. It’s not. It might have been in 1962 (even if the Catholicism it produced was often hollow). It’s not now.
If there is no faith – people on fire for the faith – a parish won’t last long in this society today. And if there’s that fire, we’ll be doing what Msgr Pope suggests. Evangelizing. Welcoming. Participating. Tithing. Being open to life. Instilling the faith in our children. If we had all been doing these things all along, there wouldn’t be parish closings. There wouldn’t be a vocations crisis.
I appreciate what you’ve written recently about tithing, etc. Although I attend the ’62 Mass as much as I can, and attendance is growing for that Mass, I think there’s a much simpler explanation for shrinking numbers. Many parishes have no culture of hospitality! I’d seriously hesitate to invite someone to my parish’s Novus Ordo Masses because while the pastor would say hi, I can’t be sure anyone else would. There’s a similar problem in many parishes for RCIA: we lose new Catholics a year or 2 after their initiation because the parishes don’t make them feel wanted. And if a marginal Catholic doesn’t feel like anyone cares if they come, drifting is real easy.
While I suspect that Msgr. Pope may order me to confession for saying it, I think it has to be said that the problems of the Milwaukee Archdiocese are at least partly a reflection of the serious problems with Archbishop Weakland’s leadership of the archdiocese for a quarter century. Cardinal Dolan (Archbishop Dolan as he then was) had a big mess to clean up when he took over in 2002 and there was only so much he could do in the seven years he was there. Dolan did manage to increase seminary enrollments during his tenure.
As to the larger issue of Church decline in general, of course it’s a problem and we need to continue with evangelization efforts, but we have to be realistic. The Church is probably going to continue to decline for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the Church and the ambient neo-pagan culture of today’s world are now so far apart that when one tries to evangelize it’s like you’re speaking a completely different language. A lot of people just don’t understand and won’t listen.
Benedict XVI (Cardinal Ratzinger as he then was) once said that the times we live in are such that we might have to part with the notion of a “popular Church”. He was right. The episcopate, clergy and lay people will likely have to get used to managing the decline of the Church (and the regrettable deconsecration and closure of Church buildings) until such time as the ambient neo-pagan culture begins to realize that there’s more to life than satisfying one’s animal desires.
“The problem is that the Church and the ambient neo-pagan culture of today’s world are now so far apart that when one tries to evangelize it’s like you’re speaking a completely different language. A lot of people just don’t understand and won’t listen.”
Funny, but the apostles didn’t have that problem in the first century.
The apostles in the first century had an audience that was willing to listen.
CS Lewis points out in his Latin Letters, that ancient Europe was like a virgin waiting for her groom whereas the Europe of today is an angry divorcee. He further opines that the Europe that, at least the barbarians of ancient Europe believed in the supernatural and accepted the basic tenets of natural Law. Today, modern Europe (an Lewis wrote in the 1950s!) doesn’t even have that basis. Yes, it is not exactly a listening audience we have these days. More here: http://blog.adw.org/2012/03/lewis/
“at least the barbarians of ancient Europe believed in the supernatural and accepted the basic tenets of natural Law.”
Exactly. That’s the key and it’s a big part of why evangelization today is arguably more difficult than at any time in the past. Thanks, Monsignor.
“CS Lewis points out in his Latin Letters, that ancient Europe was like a virgin waiting for her groom whereas the Europe of today is an angry divorcee.”
One of Lewis’s most insightful observations.
I’m aware CS Lewis is a revered figure, but I did not know he was a time traveller well-placed to *observe* the ancient Roman culture. One would think that by living in a Western Christian substrate that knowledge and information on Christ was already out there. If the link for a more vibrant faith is what’s missing, it seems rather damning to the rest of us that so many found Christianity wanting.
I’d say that Roman Catholicism has been adrift on the evangelization front since the Reformation. Latin America is still mission territory after five centuries, by which time Christianity had already produced a New Testament, overcome a pagan empire, and placed Eight Doctors as the bedrock of Christian theology. And then the Vatican pulled the plug on the Jesuit conquest of China in the early 17th century.
I still think institutional Catholicism as currently configured is often a deadweight on the Gospel.
Poor catechises. We can all agree the last couple of generations have been terribly catechized in the faith. Many might not complain about the lack of respect and reverence in the liturgy, but this is still why they are leaving – even if they don’t know it. Catholics that don’t attend Mass don’t know (or perhaps don’t believe) the Mass (and the Eucharist) is what it really is – if they did they wouldn’t be leaving, for any reason. They are looking for entertainment, for a “warm reception”, for a good time and the culture can provide all these things better than the Church will ever be able to. They don’t come to worship God reverently in the Eucharist b/c they don’t believe He is there, so they come to feel good and be welcomed into a social club, which the Church isn’t, so they leave. The solution isn’t just getting rid of liturgical abuses, it’s teaching people what the Mass is AND getting rid of liturgical abuses so the people want a reverent liturgy. If the people don’t thirst for Christ in the Eucharist, they will leave, citing any number of complaints.
Although many people today still say they are catholics and believers in God they don’t seem to understand the benefits and the value of the sacraments. The sense of the sacred is lost and they have no fear of God. Many say that they don’t have to go to church to pray because they can do that privately at home. But they don’t seem to be reading the teachings of Christ about the necessity of eating his flesh and blood and to “do this in memory of me”. Many people go to church only to get married and also to have their children baptised and at funerals,
Parents, godmothers, godfathers, grand-parents could be reminded of their duty of being an example to the children when the children are baptised and at the first comunion. They could pray the Lord for guidance, for more faith and humility. They must be reminded of their duty to teach their children how to pray. Go to mass with them and teach about the solemnity of the consecration . Train them to say their evening prayer, read to them passages of the bible, give them a rosary and pray it with them. Let’s pray that the people of God receive the gift of humility and the desire to serve the Lord and seek the opportunity to come back to the mass united.
Well, I agree with Msgr.
1. First, there is no substitute for tithing. It should be done as a means to discipleship, just as prayer and service are means to discipleship. It should NOT be done by direct withdrawal, but should (IMO) be done by weekly check. This is not for economical reasons (though those were important) but because tithing clarifies the mind. It forces you to put your priorities in order, and it reminds you why you believe, and whether you think God is worth it.
2. Second, the church needs to deal with its organizational structure. Thanks to the vocation shortage, we now have mega parishes where the pastor CAN”T know everybody,regardless of how gifted he might be. Honestly, I am amazed that my pastor remembers my name considering he has 10,000 souls to worry about, and I just see him across the sanctury at Mass, have ministries that are secular and outside his purview, and just about never actually speak to him. (He does though). However, even though I am willing to believe that he has a brilliant memory for names and faces, he can’t know everyone. So the church should do what the military (another large faceless bureacracy does). It should divide everybody who wishes to participate into small groups. Like the military it is not necessary (or even desirable) that your small group include like minded people, though it is important that they usually attend the same Mass time.. What is important is that there be one “corporal” who knows everyone. The group should get together after Mass (not necessarily on campus – I know we couldn’t do that – the next service would be late) and should greet each other, ask about prayer requests, and if possible discuss the sermon or lessons or even engage in bible study. The interaction could be as brief as five minutes (getting into a prayer huddle) or as long as an hour, studying Scripture over breakfast, possibly with another group.
In the final analysis, evangelization is not about preaching from the pulpit (though there is a place for that). It is more about making friends. In Cursillo we say “Make a friend, be a friend, and bring your friend to Christ.” The Church should make opportunities for her people to “make friends” in Christ.
Further, since many of the outside friends we bring to church (and I have brought several) have “black marks” that make them ineligible (temporarily or not) for sacraments, this would be a way to incorporate such people into the life of the parish. Several of the folks I brought were initially eager, but once they found out how difficult it was to become Catholic (gotta go through RCIA, gotta get an annulment, gotta wait a year before receiving) they figured correctly that they would do better at a smaller Protestant church, or a mega Baptist church that got them into small groups immediately, and had no sacraments at all. Right now, the life of a Catholic parish is about receiving the sacraments. That is important, however it requires the presence of a priest,and requires that the individual be in “good standing.” No others need apply. All inquirers need to jump through hoops and go through a long waiting period before they can join in.. However having small groups would/could integrate such people, and would give them a community that did NOT depend upon reception of the sacraments, where they could pray, learn and work together.
It works for the military. It works for medical residencies. We should give it a try!
I am a Protestant convert. My previous local Protestant congregation was about 200 people (including children). We had about 10 small groups – every formal member of the congregation belonged to one. It was fantastic.
When I joined that congregation I was put into a small group that met at a time and location that worked for me. We met weekly for about an hour and a half. We sang, prayed, and studied Scripture. The small groups were run by a minister, deacon, or other trusted member of the congregation; and the pastor would drop in to visit from time to time to each group.
I felt very close to my small group and counted each member as a close personal friend. Our entire congregation had the best sense of community I have ever encountered in any religious congregation.
I know. I had the same experience in my protestant church. It was wonderful. Life giving. I learned so much. But part of what I learned was that my theology was Catholic, not Protestant. It was quite painful when that became clear.
The worst part of converting to Catholicism was the loneliness and the lack of community -though I have managed to find a small group now (though we only meet once a month, and technically speaking we are a Chesterton fan club, not a bible study, which allows us to fly under any ecclesial radar. It ends up being a politics/theology/Scripture/history discussion group however, though we always _begin_ with Chesterton
.
I think, however, that most Catholic priests don’t really want laity studying Scripture or working in small groups together. I guess, they are concerned about heresies cropping up or something. Or maybe the bishops don’t like it, whatever they might say. I know that whenever I have suggested any such, or offered to pay for materials from some authorized Catholic scripture study vendor for the purpose, the suggestion has always been shot down. I was told that one would need a trained catechist to supervise such lay led bible studies, and that there weren’t enough to go round.
Really, the main reason the Catholic church doesn’t evangelize is that the Catholic hierarchy (for the most part, Msgr. is an exception) really does NOT want lay folks to do so, other than by simply bringing their kids to Mass, and there just aren’t enough professionals to do the job alone.
When my husband was in RCIA in 2000, a visiting Bishop actually got mad at my husband for asking questions about the need for more bible study opportunities. Actually, the bishop went ballistic — and told all those gathered (it was a big ‘spirituality on justice & peace issues’ in the parish hall) exactly what you said above — that you couldn’t just prance around the Bible without a trained facilitator. Later, the bishop apologized — through a group of social & justice parishioners — for his behavior, but never contacted my husband personally about it.
Recently, I spent three years learning Scripture and how to be a bible study facilitator for our parish. It was an amazing experience — very difficult because I had been out of college for a long time and there were papers to write every month on the Scriptures. Unfortunately, as the director of RCIA (for children, teens, and adults), I simply don’t have the time to lead a Bible study. Though i do incorporate what I learned in the RCIA classes, so I am very grateful for that.
At our parish, when people have ‘asked’ for bible study, only three people show up. But we keep trying!
Let’s put something to rest now–the problem of feeling welcome in church is a universal problem. It is in no way the case that loose, casual, happy-clappy liturgy equals people feeling welcome in the church vs. sober, austere liturgy equals feeling unwelcome. My wife as a convert (I am too btw) is particularly sensitive to this and she’ll tell you she often feels every bit as unconnected and regarded with indifference by other parishioners in a parish with fluffy liturgy as with one with serious liturgy. The attempts like the goofy “take a moment and greet the neighbor next to you” moment may be well-intentioned, but it doesn’t work because it is just forced intimacy, which isn’t intimate at all. But I remember from my Protestant days a study that was done that you got more people in when new people were contacted outside of worship. Welcoming notes helped a little, a visit from the pastor helped more, but what really beat everything by a magnitude was when new people were visited at home by a member of the congregation. This is evangelization. Get their contact info. Get the leads to a layman. Get those layman visiting these people. Always Be Closing.
Scott, your wasting your time trying to convince, or to be more accurate, point out, just some of the many problems with the prostinization of the Novus Ordo, your just asking to be demonized and catigorized with the normal shift of the blame. However, if it is any consolation, a letter to the Corinthians 11:17-26.33 about the divisions in the way the early Mass was conducted indicating to me, at least, all this is nothing new. The bishops that caused this mess in the Mass are slowly being replaced, San Francisco and Phila. come to mind along with Colorado, though it seems like a painfully slow process, to me at least. The Holy Father said it himself, and I quote, “the Catholic Church of the future will be a much smaller Church”. Card. Koch, the Vatican`s top ecumenist stated that Pope Benedict thinks the post-Vatican II liturgical changes have brought “many positive fruits” but also problems, including a focus on purely practical matters and a neglect of the paschal mystery in the Eucharistic celebration. The Cardinal further stated” that it was legitimate to ask whether liturgical innovators had intentionally gone to far.” So feel free. As long as it is pointed out enough, nothing will change.
“prostinization” ???
Tom T., the point here is that it is not one simple thing, and all the blame game stuff is just what the Devil wants. but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60). Has your blame stuff got you any recent converts, because that’s the real goal here, to get people back to the sacraments.
Msgr. Pope,
You and I agree the problems are much to complex to simply ascribe to any one point. I have done enough research on Vatican theological and philosphical arguments that reach the highest level of Vatican politics, to know it is not going away anytime soon. Still, you have to recognize,identify what the problems are and where they came from before you can do anything to correct them. The Holy Father at least dose exactly that. I have spent a great deal of time, more than I care too, studying many of the problems you mentioned in your blog since I am involved in an Archdiocese that is one of the hardest hit and suffering in the Nation. We are dealing with astronomical problems here with an Archdiocese that is 6 million dollars in the hole and a high level Monsig.
sitting in jail with a 3 year sentence, Church and school closings with more to come and several high profile abuse cases on the docket for trials. We here are overwhelmed. Misconceptions and wrongfull application of Post Conciliar Documents, and yes I have read them, are only a fraction of what we are dealing with. To make matters worse, there are people high up in politics that are trying, and in some cases succeeding, to divide the Church and sadly there are highly placed Cardinals who, in my view, are helping them do it under the pretense of bringing everyone together. It makes our work very frustrating. You and I are, as stated before, two different sides to the same coin. And yes, we are working very hard to bring people back however, you are faced with these points on the front lines and you have to answer them in a profound and understanding way to direct people to the more important issue of placing Jesus Christ above it all. Pax.
As a younger cradle Catholic, raised by devout Catholic parents who are now elderly, I am simply tired of hearing about the “call to repentance.” Yes, I am sure, that this is not very spiritual of me, but I am just being an honest. I am in a diocese still reeling from abuse cases that were not the fault of my generation. I am the product of liberal, watered-down, little “c” Catholicism that was not propagated by my generation. And now that the Churches are empty and everything is in disarray, my generation is called to both bear the economic and spiritual burden and repent for what we have not caused as well! While the economic aspect ought to be the burden of the younger generations as responsible members of the Body of Christ, it is the Boomers — laity and clergy alike — who should repent.
Well said Maria, but good luck selling that one.
All the studies show that there are two basic paths that American Catholics take out of the Church: One is to leave very early (80% by age 23) and become “nothing”. The other is to leave later and end up a Protestant. As Msgr Pope points out, there is no evidence that a longing for traditionalist liturgy or devotions is the focus for the vast majority of Catholics who leave.
I was so grateful when Pope Benedict made this point to the bishops of Columbia this summer:
“Pope Benedict believes that Catholics who convert to evangelical Christianity often do so because they experience a lack of fervor, joy and community within Catholic parishes – rather than for doctrinal reasons.
‘Often sincere people who leave our Church do not do so as a result of what non-Catholic groups believe, but fundamentally as a result of their own lived experience; for reasons not of doctrine but of life; not for strictly dogmatic, but for pastoral reasons; not due to theological problems, but to methodological problems of our Church,’ he told a delegation of Colombian bishops at the Vatican June 21.
We have to understand that the majority of Catholics who become Protestants are motivated differently from those who leave to become “nothing”. We must not confuse these two groups because they really are on different journeys for different reasons.
This is going to be very hard for some to hear but there is a hidden hemorrhage of Catholics from within our parishes to the Protestant world fueled by spiritual growth and spiritual hunger, not spiritual disinterest. The Pew US Religious Landscape Survey found that 71% of adult Catholics who became Protestant said their primary motivation was that “their spiritual needs weren’t being met”.
The whole “they just want to be entertained” meme that I’ve heard so often in Catholic circles is almost entirely a projection of our assumptions upon a group with very different concerns that we haven’t been willing to take seriously – yet.
Pope Benedict, whom no one can accuse of being insufficiently theologically-minded or sophisticated, nailed it. For the vast majority of these Catholics-turned-Protestants, it is about lived experience and the failure of the local parish community. They are becoming Protestant not primarily for truly theological reasons (which is actually rare) but for real life, existential, pastoral reasons.
As I wrote in Forming Intentional Disciples
“ ‘Rachel,” who works in a large archdiocese, recently had six different people, all unrelated, approach her over the course of a single month and tell her, “I am on the verge of leaving the Church for a Protestant church, because I don’t know anyone in the parish that I can talk to about what is happening to me spiritually.” Word had gone around the parish that you could talk to Rachel about spiritual issues and relationship with God. Happily, she was able to convince four out of the six to stay. She connected them with people and groups in the parish who could support them in their journey.
We need to recognize the presence of a hidden hemorrhage fueled by spiritual growth in our parishes. Numerous Catholics are experiencing spiritual longings but may have little or no language for what they seek. They sense there has to be more to faith than what they have encountered so far. Their spiritual antennae are up, and they are quietly looking for people who might know, for clues, for guidance. But they are often invisible to the rest of us.”
Here’s the reality that the Pew study uncovered: Among American adults raised Catholic, becoming Protestant was the best guarantee of stable church attendance as an adult. Why?
Because the best predictor of consistent adult attendance is strong adult faith. According to the Pew surveyors, there was a huge rise in “very strong” personal faith for Catholics who joined Protestant communities: from 22% as a Catholic teenager to 71% as a Protestant adult.
The irony is that those raised Catholic and remain Catholic as adults typically had a stronger faith as a teen that those Catholics who eventually became Protestant. But their faith as an adult was much weaker: only 46% of those who remained Catholic as adults answered that they possessed a “very strong faith”. And their Mass attendance reflects it.
It seems to me that anyone who would leave the Church b/c they don’t know anyone and cannot talk with someone about their spiritual problems IS leaving b/c of doctrine (or their lack of understanding / belief of it). Any Catholic that understands – 1) The Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church alone, as the Body of Christ on Earth, is the ONLY Church founded by Christ Himself and 2) The Eucharist is Christ – could never leave b/c they find more spiritual “friends” or more joy at the Protestant church next door. The problem is precisely a lack of doctrinal understanding among those leaving. Should the parish be a greater source of spiritual connection between parishioners? Sure. Should the parish be a greater witness to the joy of following Christ? Absolutely. Are either of these the “source and summit of the Christian life” (i.e. are either of these legitimate reasons for abandoning the Church)? No.
I don’t know of a single fallen-away Catholic who had a solid adult understanding of the Catholic Faith.
As a cradle Catholic, educated in the 1960′s in a traditional Catholic school, after my Confirmation, I fell away for 25 years and have been back and in the process of converting for 17 years now. The only thing I really understood about the Catholic faith was the Eucharist. And it’s the reason why I came back — to receive Him again (although, due to my past, I had to wait a few years to receive Holy Communion).
I agree, which is why I said that more TLM’s are not going to staunch the bleeding. On the other hand, people tend to conflate spiritual need with emotional need. Of course even ephemeral emotions are tied into spiritual fulfillment, but what has happened is that the average parish has taken on the character of secular therapeutic culture, which can sometimes satisfy emotional needs for a short while, but it will never satisfy spiritual needs. This is why I harp on trivial liturgy so much is that that is where this problem is most palpably manifest, and maybe I’m wrong, but I think if that is fixed, then everything else falls into place.
I find myself in agreement with Sherry, though I would add that poor catechesis and a refusal to actually feed the sheep creates the environment where people are willing to look for spiritual growth through Protestant sects.
The fact of the matter is spiritual hunger is a natural thing for man to experience. It is only when they lose hope do they tend to turn away from it. Those who hunger want to be fed. Too often they are not.
Now, a good meal includes solid doctrine, orthopraxy and dogmatics, as well as an actual social community lived through various apostolates.
Me, I prefer the old rite, etc. But those of us who do are self-selecting to associate with others like us. This is NOT the case for the average Catholic in the pew. The rite itself will not provide the solution — though I think it will be an important part. Our Holy Father hit this one on the head.
Nathan: No. I’ve talked to hundreds of highly committed, fully orthodox, theologically well formed Catholic leaders all over the country who are disciples and are simply dying. In my experience, at least 80% of Catholics who are intentional disciples (including priests and parish and diocesan staff at all levels) feel incredibly isolated and unsupported in their parish or diocese. I’ve spent alot of time supporting these wonderful people by phone, e-mail, and in person, trying to keep them afloat. I just heard of another one – a leader in one of the most lionized campus ministries in the country – who left for the Protestant world. Catholic theology is full of talk of communio and Christian community but in practice, Christian community centered around intentional discipleship is hardly ever available.
Most endure. Some are barely hanging on by their fingernails. Some despair and leave. But very few Catholic disciples are flourishing spiritually or as human beings because we were NOT intended to seek and find God and sustain the life of discipleship by ourselves. And for most people, the sacraments and theological conviction – without actual personal support – are not enough. They were never meant to be enough. We were meant to seek God and to find him with others.
Sherry, As you well know, at Mass we eat the flesh and drink the blood of God incarnate. We stand at the very foot of the Cross with our Lord as he offers himself to the Father in the Spirit. Is making friends with others in Church nice? Yes. Have I spoken with my pastor about working on this very issue. Yes. Do we need to do better as a whole here? Certainly. But is this reason to leave Christ? No. Never. To apostatize, to abandon Christ and his Body on Earth, b/c we feel isolated defies logic. Anyone who truly understands the Eucharist will not join a Protestant group regardless of how friendly that community might be. Anymore than anyone who truly understands who Christ is would join a Mosque if they had a better social scene. In the Mass, we don’t need to seek God, for He has already found us and He is right in our midst, on our altar, and in our mouth. We are meant to worship him with others, but to elevate sense of community over and against orthodox teaching and the sacraments (esp the Eucharist) is simply misguided. Social networks are fantastic, but the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life.”
Nathan:
I agree 110% about the theology but that doesn’t change the fact that millions and millions of Catholics have left the Church and are leaving the Church at this very moment and becoming Protestant and a goodly number know and believe everything you just wrote about the Eucharist. They are leaving anyway because they have come to the conclusion that they can’t survive on the Eucharist alone. I mean, what does Pope Benedict know anyway?
I suppose we can refuse to listen to what they tell us were their motivations and insist that it must be ignorance of the Church’s teaching or a desire for entertainment. And that the Christian community they long for is “a social scene”. Because by definition, if they are willing to leave the Eucharist, they must be crazy, shallow, and stupid. We can shake their impious dust off our Catholic feet.
Or, heaven forfend, we could actually talk to them and really listen to their spiritual longings and restore their hope before they leave (studies show that desperate Catholics often think about leaving for a few years before they do so. ) What if we took their spiritual hunger seriously before they left? What we are seeing is that many don’t leave if we do. What if we reached out to them during the several year limbo period before former Catholic typically join a Protestant congregation? Instead of waiting for evangelicals to evangelize them?
Course, taking the initiative to reach out and build relational bridges of trust over which people could return is so . . . Protestant. Lecturing the tiny minority who will listen to us about the theology of the Eucharist is the Catholic way.
I AM YOUR CHURCH -Anonymous-
I am your church.
Make of me what you will.
I shall reflect you as a mirror.
If outwardly my appearance is pleasing and inviting,
it is because you made me so.
If within my walls my atmosphere is
sacred yet spirited;
reverent, yet friendly;
worshipful, yet warm;
sympathetic, yet strong;
divine, yet human;
then it is the true manifestation of the spirit of those who constitute my membership.
But, if you should, by chance, find me a bit cold and apathetic,
I beg of you not to condemn me
for I show only the kind of life I have received from you.
You are my life blood.
I have no life apart from you.
This church, your church, is a self-made church.
You have made me what I am or am not.
I am the reflected image of your own mirrored soul.
Regardless, you are the church.
Make of me what you will.
Amen.
We need a John Vianney in every parish. And Scott you are right.
Great point! A saint in every parish (or even every diocese) should be our goal.
It is a problem of knowledge and belief.
The 75% who don’t go to Mass don’t believe enough to go. If they understood the matter of mere justice involved in worshiping God rightly (let alone further reasons), they would go to weekly Mass, no matter how poor the presentation. They just don’t believe this and that’s all there is to it. I have an unfriendly parish with awful music, some truly painful homilies and a glaring priest who doesn’t seem to like me. It’s a depressing weekly torture. But I go.
Fixing outward problems, as the TLM people suggest is true enough, but without belief, it is worthless. And the idea of being more appealing to a dumbed-down consumerist culture that knows nothing of beauty or truth only distorts the very things you’re supposed to be revealing and elevating a person to.
Further, the idea that abortion and contraception are a significant part of this decline isn’t convincing. Sure, it played a part; some of these missing people would have become practicing Catholics. Some. But for the most part, what kind of training in the faith were they likely to receive with parents who clearly didn’t believe the faith themselves?
A deep and lasting evangelization is essentially the only solution. Sadly, I see no efforts around me that are entirely successful at this.
A great and low cost means to bring people closer to Jesus of Nazareth – is to bring the Shroud of Turin, Our Lord’s True Image – into the mainstream of His Church.
Consider our blog: Go to Google, and type Resurrection NOW, Inc.
To be a leader one must turn his back on the people he is leading. People complain about the Mass prayed ad Orientem because the priest has his back to the congregation. The symbolism of that was that he was leading the congregation into heaven. When we turn to God, we turn our backs on the entire universe, even ourselves. I think the Mass prayed with the priest facing the people is a symbol of the some of the troubles in the Church.
Your suggestions are solid ones, Monsignor. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
There isn’t a parish out there that isn’t experiencing some kind of ‘contraction’ in priests, attendance, Masses, financial support, vocations (both of Holy Orders and Marriage). It seems that every Catholic thinks they have the answers, but few seem to consider the Catholic Baptismal responsibility of being evangelistic in thought, word, and deed. Most Catholics dislike the word ‘evangelist’ — as if it’s a dirty word rather than the bringer of good news.
Lack of priests? I am tired of hearing that excuse. My goodness, look to Korea for inspiration on that matter. The memorial for the Korean Martyrs is this week. Read about how the Church was grown there. Would the Catholic Church in the U.S. survive and thrive if we had no priests to consecrate the Eucharist, no bishops to confirm us…for generations? If every Catholic who arrived at Holy Mass, could not receive the Eucharist (as a ‘given’ vs. in a penitent state), would they bother going to Mass?
We have grown comfortable in our individual-interpretation of the Catholic Church…without bothering to really to study the Catechism.
I noticed in Lebanon last weekend, that many were using the “You-Cat” youth catechism as banners to wave back and forth. I hope that many actually read it — it’s quite good!
Stefanie:
Actually the good new is that there are parishes that are growing in attendance, financial support, vocations, etc. They are parishes who intentionally and persistently call their own to intentional discipleship. Those kinds of parishes often have the highest per capita giving in their area and are seeing priestly and religious and secular vocations of all kinds- sometimes in staggering numbers.
Yes, I actually did that on my own when I returned to the Church. I was determined to study the Bible, the Catechism, and volunteer like crazy throughout the parish until I found where I could best be used. Interestingly, I embraced the stuff that scared the heck out of me — like teaching a large roomful of children without the benefit of feltboards and color pages.
The easy way would have been to be in the choir because it was what I had done before.
All people have to do is to do it. It starts with you and the free will God gave you. No one is stopping you from introducing yourself and keeping a running interest on the folks who sit near you at Mass — or from moving from section to section each month as my husband used to make us do so that we could meet more people.
Clueless has a good point up above. Do ever larger parishes make the problem of social support and welcome even worse?
I realize that bishops don’t always have a choice – the priestly numbers are what they are, and even if they’re great and holy bishops who are now generating lots of vocations, it will be years before those men reach the end of the pipeline, and they’ll likely only be replacing mass waves of retiring and dying priests when they do.
But speaking for myself, I find it harder to find a place in a super-parish of 3,000 (or more!) families. The old, smaller parishes of yesteryear had a certain advantage in building community. A megaparish is going to have to work a lot harder at making prospective parishioners welcome and find a place for them. Having a school attached where the children go is not enough.
I don’t know what the fix is for that. I’d hope that we could keep smaller parishes open as much as possible. But we do need the priests. And we do need the laity in those parishes to be even more involved.
Many companies ask their staff members to fill out “employee satisfaction” or “engagement” surveys. Most such surveys ask not only about compensation and resources to perform one’s job responsibilities, but also about relationships with peers and supervisors. We HR folks have a saying: People don’t leave their employers, they leave their supervisors or coworkers. The kind of relationship one has with those in whose company one spends 40+ hours has a marked impact on one’s quality of life.
Some have suggested in other posts on similar topics that those seeking social connections should look elsewhere. That attitude is not healthy for any parish, Catholic or otherwise. One may not be spending 40+ hours at church, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a focal point in one’s life.
Lack of priests? I am tired of hearing that excuse.
Yes. Me as well. Especially considering that a good portion of the shortage is manufactured (ask Fr. Longenecker about that one.)
Msgr. Pope – you make an excellent point about most Catholics not giving much money to their parishes. The Protestant churches I attended as a teenager all excpected a tithe, and got it from most people.
I hadn’t been giving a very significant portion of my income to my parish but when I read your earlier article on it – I was convicted. I spoke to my wife about it and we doubled our giving. We’re not quite to a full tithe yet (we’re going through job changes at the moment) but that’s our goal – and at the very least, what we’re giving now is at least actually a real sacrifice.
Greater financial giving is only part of the solution for what is ailing the Church right now, but it’s an important part. Keep preaching it (and other hard things) – it’s having a real effect.
Nathan, having read all the above comments, I agree with some, disagree with some, and paritally agree with some, but your thesis makes the most sense start to finish. In most of the fast growing protestant churches, happiness and well being is preached over thirst for Christ. Community, social gatherings, coffee bars, and the old “God loves you just the way you are so don’t worry about it” mentality is taught.
I do believe as our society continues to spiritually spiral downward, America will eventually turn back to her roots and there will be a resurgance in Christianity, and hopefully (probably) Catholicism.
You learn that past bishops have been utter failures, not only in this diocese but in many others.
I wonder if the laity have any responsibility at all
The laity have a huge responsibility; and as a group should start acting like responsible adults instead of callow 8th graders who just got confirmed.
The answer: first and foremost, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in which His life becomes really real to each one, and each one helps to build His Body within that parish. The Catholic Church has the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, why isn’t the Church attracting people? Why aren’t people wondering what do these Catholics have that we don’t have? The Real Presence of Jesus. And what should be the effects of His presence in the lives of His people? Catholics have good social justice committees, have good good food pantry collections, have many Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors etc, but why is Jesus not being seen and attracting people to be a part of His Body? It’s time! New Evangelization! The Year of Faith! It’s time as Fr. Pope has said. Let each one of us seek that personal and then communal relationship with Jesus that will ignite the Fire of the Holy Spirit and will shine a light on the world and attract people to Him.
I am sorry folks, but a lot of the desctruction of the Milwaukee Archdiocese cam be laid squarely at the feet of the Holy See. A terrible appointment having made in Artchbishop Weakland under Paul VI, John Paul the Great (Disappointment) steadfastly fought off decades of Catholics pleading for help from Milwaukee.
Over the last three decades I have talked to many ex-religious mostly men. One thing that they have mentioned about the switch from Latin to English mass, it had NOTHING to do with their leaving Holy Orders. Some were ex-Franciscans who disliked the changes including self flagellation and the discipline it engendered. Many pointed out the large surge of religious in the 1940′s, 50′s & 60′s had more to do with getting out of the draft. Some got out because the automatic respect the clergy commanded dissipated after the 1970′s.
As for the Diocese of Milwaukee, it covers 4758 square miles and has over 670,000 parishioners. With 358 diocesan priest and 343 Religious priests. 2337 Women religious, 77 Religious Brothers, 166 permanent deacons and a whopping 29 new seminarians at St. Francis Seminary. In Milwaukee proper many parishes can still claim 2-3 priests working many smaller parishes have one priest handling up to three smaller churches. Numbers are down, that is nothing new it is a nation wide epidemic. Milwaukee, also has the problem of having to declare bankruptcy as of January 2012. Mistakes were made and the dioceses must pay for those mistakes. There are about 134 retired priests (average age 70) in Milwaukee, who are still helping out. Another reason to consider for consolidating parishes is payroll. If you check the Milwaukee Dioceses most recent payroll .pdf you will notice that lay workers cost money. Every $30 – 40,000 salary cost more than parishes built before the turn of the last century can afford. Are you going to try to rebuild every building over 75 years old, it would be easier to shrink both the building fund and payroll at the same time.
There is no one or even several reasons for people drifting away. When I was young we walked to church. We either went to the same school or knew kids in the Catholic school or public school because they were our neighbors. Almost everyone in the neighborhood or school were Catholic. Being Catholic was our culture and faith. Our churches were not welcoming. They did not need to be. We felt welcomed before we even went to church. We had our neighborhoods. We knew, really knew, our neighbors. We hung around together when there was nothing to do. Our parents visited. Today it is just the opposite in most places. I live in an over 55 community. People are nice, but they are not welcoming. People are friendly but relate on a superficial level. Were it not for the people I know who go to the same Catholic church, I would not stay here. They are life preservers in a sea of anonymity. Neighborhoods ain’t what they used to be.
This is a timely post for my family. Thank you, friends in Christ.
My family has had to leave our beloved parish because our pastor and associate are letting the parish secretary spread discord and scandal. She (and the associate pastor, who has completely taken on her POV) was so hateful to my husband that we ultimately had to leave. I’m broken hearted; we joined our tiny Polish parish with such love and have been really involved. We had our first Vacation Bible School in over 30 years last summer to try to welcome neighborhood children in. . . Now we are going to Mass at my school, but I worry for our young adult and teenaged children who have now seen two priests be either hateful or indifferent to the suffering of their sheep.
The Church will never fall. Individual parishes — perhaps sometimes we need a reorganization in order to heal and re-evangelize. As I write that I am crying. I don’t want the beautiful building that poor Polish immigrants built in their poverty to close because we failed to welcome the changed neighborhood members. Or because it’s easier to identify with the secretary one sees for hours every day than the parishoners you see a few times a week.
Pray for us, my friends, and I will continue to pray for y’all.
I agree with those making the point about the lack of community and fellowship in the Church today. The ethnic and geographic ties that used to bind parishes together have disintegrated and the situation is made worse by the divisions in liturgy and orthodoxy that have emerged since Vatican II. The Church has failed to come up with a model of community that accounts for these changes and try to build something new.
And to those who argue that community is overemphasized in protestant churches, you couldn’t be more wrong. Even a cursory look at the Church from the early Christian communities all the way up to the first half of the 20th Century should tell you just how integral the parish was to almost every aspect of a person’s life. Most people today go to Church for the Sacraments and maybe an occasional activity but rarely does the local parish play the broader role that it used to. Msgr., I would also add that this contributes in a major way to the problem you described in your previous post – that of Catholic men and women not meeting each other and marrying.
I’ve been researching and reading up on the origins of the “New Evangelization” for a presentation during our parish’s presentation of Fr. Barron’s Catholicism series. One source I have come across is a talk given by Cardinal Ratzinger in 2000 to a group of catechists, where he warns against the temptation of impatience, saying:
New Evangelization “means to dare, once again and with the humility of the small grain, to leave up to God the when and how it will grow.”
All we can do is to help prepare the soil, to clear out some of the rocks and break up the clumps before the seed is scattered, and then to scatter the right kind of seed at the right time and the right season. After that, we must leave much of it up to the individual person, as well as allow the Holy Spirit, as the primary agent of evangelization, something to do and not be a mere bystander in the process. Some of the seed will take root, some of it will not, some of the seed will not take root this year but will some later year after germinating for a while.
Some places in the world, including various dioceses in the U.S., perhaps emphasized the wrong things in the past, both before and after the Council. If so, then it will take some time to restore the vineyard to be able to grow significant amounts of wine-worthy grapes. That is just a given, so it should not unduly discourage us. Do what we can, as much as we can, and ask God for help to do the rest.
And in doing this, we need to remember that we are in the business of joy, and not complaining and moaning about how bad this is or that is. We proclaim GOOD NEWS, GLAD TIDINGS, REJOICE. We must go about our service in a positive manner, not a negative one.
All too often were a drifted-away Catholic or a fallen-away Catholic, or a non-Catholic to see and read what Catholics themselves say about the Church, about how this is bad, that is bad, they would run away and never look back. And rightly so. Why would anyone want to revert or convert after reading such stuff?
A while back, I was engaged in some dialogue with the folks at the blog of a certain magazine which prides itself on its independence while purporting to be a voice of Catholicism. Of course, 90 percent of what they write is, if not pure partisan politics, when they do write about the Church, it is to criticize and complain and attack the Pope, the bishops, the doctrine, Church history, etc.
On this occasion, the topic of discussion was the news that a certain prominent author, who had made a big splash upon her return to the Church, had made another big splash upon announcing that she was leaving the Church again. And the question I asked was: Look, you guys are her ideological friends, sharers in her worldview, she would never listen to the other side, so it is up to you — what have you said or done to encourage her to stay? What attempts have you made to tell her of how priceless the Church is, of the joy of being Catholic? In what ways did you describe to her all of the infinite good that is the Holy Church? What efforts did you make to keep her at home, in the family, rather than encouraging her to run out the door?
And nearly all of the responses to my inquiries were to snort and retort, “what good is there about the Church?”
The point is — if all that people ever hear, from the progressive side or from the traditional side, is how awful and lousy this aspect of the Church is or that aspect of it is, then we are essentially locking the front door and pushing people out the back door. And then we wonder where everyone is.
Hey, Bender, you (and Papa Ben) are so right. Coincidentally, tonight, we had our first Spirituality Night for the parish, kicking off the Year of Faith with Fr. Barron’s Catholicism series! We viewed Part 2 about the teachings of Jesus. Due to a room scheduling conflict, we ended up in a room designed for 20 comfortably — we had 43 show up! These people were astonished at what Father Barron told them about the crucifix and the joy of God. This was timely because we just had a huge realistic crucifix (identical to the one before the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel) installed behind the altar. Father Barron’s words — illustrated by the great art of our Catholic history — really fell on interested ears. That story will get out to others and then perhaps the resistance to this crucifix won’t be so strong.
A good beginning.
Great article, and I agree with it and the ” getting to work” thought. I also agree with your comments about why people drifted. I would add that sometimes people bs about why they drifted or changed religions, because they do not want ou to know nor do they want to discuss it. Abortion may be a sore subject with many, but about 50percent of the Catholics plan on voting for the democratic party of death. Why go to any church if infanticide is acceptable. Why give to those who make you feel bad about yourself. Add in the fact that if killing is ok then pornography cannot be wrong either. It’s been down hill for this country since 1973 and abortion was legalized. Back in the day, people went to war to stop the spread of evil and murder. Today, they don’t have the time and they want their guy elected. Things don’t matter as they once did. There is much talk, but little action. Christians should be running this country. In Europe they riot and shut the country down. Here we won’t even boycott a TV station.
Thanks for this fine post, Monsignor.
I am relieved to hear such a frank and open discussion regarding the all-too-common lack of authentic community in the Church today. I am a convert to the Faith of 12 years now. I am thoroughly orthodox and highly knowledgeable about the teachings of the Church. My parish has outstanding liturgy and music, using the ordinary form of the Mass. I am very active in my parish in a number of different ministries.
Despite all this, hardly a week goes by without me missing the sense of being loved and called to love others that I found as an evangelical. With the help of grace, I can and will persevere in the Church in faith, hope and love…but its rough-going. And I know that there is much more that I can do to improve the situation, and I do sometimes suggest ways that our folks can care for each other more. But in a way, this just goes to prove the point about it being left up to the individual Catholic to find their way. This makes me very sad.
And the spiritual hunger issue is real, especially when their is no sense of traveling along the road of the Christian life with other lay people. Honestly, I feel much more distant in my relationship with God and others now than I ever did as an evangelical. Granted, some of this is greater age, the typical periods of spiritual darkness the Lord allows us to experience, etc. But a large part of it really does flow from the basic lack of warmth and enfolding love so many of us feel in the Church at the local level.
Anyway, thanks for this post and all the thoughtful discussion and lets keep each other in prayer.
For my part, this discussion has encouraged me to get serious again about my giving in all its aspects.
God bless you all.
It took a while for this suggestion to take form so, I post a little late.
Consider the great increase of modern persecution of Christianity, especially of the Catholic Church. This is a time of brutal persecution which is no less harsh than in the Church’s early days in Roman times. It may not consist of families, and larger groups, being torn by lions for the gratification of blood thirsty spectators, or of 50 martyrs being lightly clad on a frozen lake while warm tubs of water, with fires under them, await if they recant their faith.
Now is a time of sneers and subtle derision. Of condescending smiles as the knife is slipped in the back. Of Christians being accused of being accessories to criminal abuse of children because none of the clergy is perfect … crimes which are committed elsewhere but, treated by society as isolated incidents. Are those who negate the quantities (that happen elsewhere) being accessories by providing a subtle anonymity to those who continue to get away with this sort of sexual abuse so that the sort of general “house cleaning” that the church has done won’t occur in junior sports and in schools? But that’s a side issue. Important nonetheless.
The persecution of today is just as harsh and as brutal as in the early days but, somehow the subtlety negates the pain of the victim. Just by saying that brutality is not subtle negates the pain and fear of the Christians who feel its impact and the guilt manipulation about having real feelings is re-inforced.
So, we remember the early martyrs with reverence but, do we even know much about those who left the early church or of those who desired (but avoided) the evangelization because of fear of worldly consequences.
However, these days that fear of worldly consequences appears to be taking its toll, but the psychological warfare which is being waged against God’s Word and Its benefits provides an unhealthy escape from the knowledge of the fear which is driving people away. A knowledge which would almost certainly inspire many to find the courage to withstand it.
Should we be daring people to resist the subtle and savage persecution which entire congregations give in to by diluting the message into being popular and “lukewarm” like the Church of Laodicea? (Apocolypse 3:15&16) Should we seek God’s help turning the tide in satan’s victory march?
There will almost certainly be derision at calling derision brutal and it will be cunning. Tonight I was at a prayer group where I offered a prayer on this matter and now, I will post this and turn to James 4:7 in a further prayer – face down on the carpet so that I know submission. Did an editing review first.
???
The fact is not that we “drifted” away. The fact is that we were pushed away. When I came back one of the first churches I went to in this area (Wahington state) was very up-to-date. This included altar girls and a litugy which could easily have been considered Lutheran or Anglican. I have since found a TLM parish supported by the FSSP – and it is growing. I know you all don’t want to hear more traditional horn tooting, however; it occurs to me that the church is reaping what was sown 50 plus years ago.
No problem with horn tooting, there needs to be a place for traditional Catholicism, but my only point is That there are many Catholics who are not particularly interested or concerned about the thing you of listed. I’m glad to hear the parish you described is growing, and I hope there are many more like it. But it remains a subset of Catholicism that will appeal to some but not to others. In most dioceses with which I am familiar, the upper limit in the interest in the TLM has been reached. And simply adding a Traditional mass at a parish does not mean that that mass fills up, any longer. thus, in addition to ensuring that traditional Catholicism is well served them well represented, Other outreaches must also be made.
I drifted away from the church in the 60′s as a teenager. As a child who attended a Catholic elementary school most of my classmates didn’t attend mass. At that time only boys could be alter servers and only adults were accepted to join the ladies in the kitchen or prayer groups or singing. I went every Sunday with my family or my one friend who also went to church with her family every Sunday. Then in highschool I drifted away. The only people I knew then that attended Mass was my family and other families with younger school children. I didn’t seem to fit in and knew no one but my Mom and Dad. I visited the church as a young adult every once in a while. But even though I was now an adult I knew no one and only the old ladies were working in the kitchen, singing etc. In 2005 I returned to the church and been back ever since. I am now in my sixties. When I returned I filled in a talent sheet that they had in their bulletin. The church was now full of a lot of people in their 70′s and 80′s. It had no greeters. So I offered to be a greeter. I heard nothing back. Then I noticed that the priest had no alter servers during the week day masses, so I filled in another talent sheet offering my services as an alter server for week day masses if someone would train me. Again I got no response. My parish and two other parishes are to merge. I offered and was accepted to be on the merger committee 2 months ago. What a disaster. Our merger committee was only expected to rubber stamp the decisions previously made by the representative from the Archdiocese. Every thing was rammed through and we weren’t even given half the information so we could question or discuss anything but the recordings of our meetings always stated that we the committee had agreed to everything. These recordings were handed out to all the parishioners. What a joke. I resigned from that committee this past week. Now I know why I was accepted on the committee. When I go to church no one says hello. No one knows my name. I have asked the Priest to come to my home for Sunday supper when I have the nuns living in the rectory also coming. I would like to have my home blessed if that is still done in the church. For 3 years now my Priest has turned my supper invitation down. I will not be returning to that parish and probably not to the Catholic church. 7 years of attending Mass each Sunday and still feeling like a visitor that is not welcome, I have had enough. I will go somewhere that I am accepted as part of the community and welcomed and my talents are welcomed.