Do American Catholics believe in sin?

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), at Georgetown University has been publishing trends in American Catholicism since 1995, and their most recent report  further illustrates the downward spiral that is The Church in America since the Second Vatican Council.

Below are just a few of the statistics;

• In 1965 the number of priests in this country was 58,632. It was since fallen to 39,993.
• The amount of priestly ordinations in the mid-1960's was 994. It now stands at 459.
• And the most dramatic drop was in Religious sisters, whose numbers stood at 179,954 in 1965, and have since plummeted to an astonishing 57,544.

Possibly the most shocking number of all is the amount of professed practicing Catholics who receive Holy Communion with regularity, and all but pass on the Sacrament of Confession. 

 

Speaking on grounds of anonymity, one priest commented that a sizable percentage of practicing Catholics "either don't believe in sin, or the Catholic belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist."

There has been a noticeable trend in American Catholicism among the more liberally-minded priests and bishops to both downplay the importance of Confession as well as the reality of sin, damnation and hell.  

In another disturbing trend, CARA also stated that a mere 22% of Catholics attend Mass at least weekly.

In a different report, CARA cited that in 1958, 74% of Catholics attended Mass weekly, and that number had dropped to 67% at the closing of Vatican II.

With the essentially abandonment of the Traditional Latin Mass and the introduction of the 1970 Missal (Novus Ordo Mass), the number had further dropped to 60%.