What! Me Worry?
Last month, Archbishop Dolan of New York was elected President of the USCCB. When asked what his chief priorities were for both the Church and society, Dolan stated that he would continue on the same path that the USCCB has been on prior to his election.
He also went on to say;
It’s not like, thanks be to God, we’re in crisis. Things are going well.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI said in a speech less than two weeks ago that in regards to the decline of Christian morality and the overall abandonment of God by Western Civilization that;
"The very future of the world is at stake."
And in a comment aimed directly at those within Catholicism who are in positions of power and authority, Pope Benedict said;
"It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself.
Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist.
The effects of such theories are evident today."
Crisis, What Crisis?
Kenneth C Jones, the author of Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church since Vatican II, cites the following;
- After skyrocketing from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States dropped to 45,000 in 2002.
- By 2020, there will be about 31,000 priests--and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70.
- There were 16,300 seminarians in 1930 and 49,000 in 1965. By 2002 the number had plunged to 4,700: a 90% decrease.
- There were 596 seminaries in 1965, and only 200 in 2002.
- While there were 1,575 ordinations to the priesthood in 1965, in 2002 there were 450, a decrease of 350%.
- Taking into account ordinations, deaths and departures, in 1965 there was a net gain of 725 priests. In 1998, there was a net loss of 810.
- 138,000 sisters ran the Catholic education and health systems in 1945; their numbers swelled to 180,000 by 1965.
- In 2002, there were 75,000 sisters, with an average age of 68. By 2020, the number of sisters will drop to 40,000--and of these, only 21,000 will be age 70 or under.
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In 1965 there were 5,277 Jesuit priests and 3,559 seminarians; in 2000 there were 3,172 priests and 389 seminarians.
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There were 2,534 OFM Franciscan priests and 2,251 seminarians in 1965; in 2000 there were 1,492 priests and 60 seminarians.
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There were 2,434 Christian Brothers in 1965 and 912 seminarians; in 2000 there were 959 Brothers and 7 seminarians.
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At the time of the Council there were 4.5 million students in US parochial schools; now there are 2 million.
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Before the Council there were less than 400 marriages annulled by Catholic diocesan tribunals in an average year; now there are 50,000.
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Before the Council 3 out of 4 Catholics attended Mass each week; now the figure is 1 in 4.
Go Ask Alice...
To paraphrase the late Alice Thomas Ellis;
"[To say there is no crisis] seems to mean taking something pure and strong, mixing it up with something weak and polluted, slashing it about, watching the churches empty and then congratulating yourself on your progress."
And what can only be described as prophetic, Ellis also wrote in 1977 exactly how she believed the Spirit of Vatican II had impacted Catholicism in the Western World;
"It is as though one's revered, dignified and darling old mother had slapped on a mini-skirt and fishnet tights and started ogling strangers. A kind of menopausal madness, a sudden yearning to be attractive to all. It is tragic and hilarious and awfully embarrassing. And of course, those who knew her before feel a great sense of betrayal and can't bring themselves to go and see her any more."
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Comments
The liberals still have a death grip on what is left of the Church. Suppose Vatican II had not happened. Would things have been twice as bad? In other words, would 95 percent have left the Church? I suspect we'd still have the 10 percenters, those who refuse to "get with the program." You know, those stubborn traditionalists and even stubborner orthodox, who actually take seriously the teaching of the magisterium regarding faith and morals. About the way it is today. The only difference may have been that awful open schism everybody so worried about, only it could have meant the formal leaving of the Church of liberals instead of undermining it from the inside. Honestly, I think the real Church would have been a lot larger than it is today. And, Catholic politicians might have been forced to avoid scandalously violating Church law. And, maybe, we would have overturned Griswold v. Connecticut and avoided Roe v. Wade and a swarm of other Culture of Death plagues. And, maybe, 50 million kids wouldn't have been ripped from their wombs. And maybe fewer bishops would be roasting in hell!
Reminds me as to *why* did the TLM get replaced with the Novus Ordo Mass? What the TLM leading people into less belief in The Real Presence? Did the TLM make Catholics leave the Church in droves? What there something basically "wrong" with the TLM to even begin with?
We both know the answers to all those questions.
There is a comedian named Jim Gaffigan, and part of his routine is talking about his wife's Catholicism. He called her a "shiite" Catholic because she really practiced her faith. They always say that things are funny because there is a little truth to them and he was spot on.
The world does campare those Catholics who actually practice their faith to other extremists like shiites. This is exactly why more people (and we all know some) that are practicing the Catholic faith but refuse to attend the TLM because they are afraid of the world rejecting them.
I think this describes the USCCB, they are just afraid of being labeled extreme. So instead of leading they say stupid things like, "I'm OK, and your OK, and thats why we love you!"
If only Dolan were as benign as Alfred E. Neuman... This man wields a lot of power and is angling to wield even more.
Good statistics you have presented. We know they're just the tip of the iceberg.
Let's not forget that at the same time Dolan was exclaiming that we're not in crisis, he was putting 32 of his Catholic schools on the chopping block.
Dolan is a dangerous man...and yet so many are duped by his ho-ho-ho "jolly" facade.
Archbishop Dolan is a good bishop and a good man.
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