A WOUNDED CHURCH RUSHES TOWARD AN ABANDONMENT OF THE FAITH

In numerous previous posts, I have chronicled the collapse of the the Church in Europe, all the while hoping and praying that the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of the present Pontificate, might be able to slow the Continent’s sprint toward a complete abandonment of the Faith.

As a result of recent events, it appears that the growing challenge for Pope Francis will be to keep the present decline of the European Church from becoming a preview of the future for South America.

That being the case, I thought it might be worthwhile to inventory the state the Church in countries once thought to be bastions of Catholicity.

Certainly, the scourge of sex abuse scandals continues to devastate Catholicism and has reached its long arm of suffering and shame into the Southern Hemisphere spreading secularism in once strongly traditional Catholic cultures.  

The scandal and the admission by the Bishops of Chile regarding their indifference and negligence has done enormous damage to the Faith in places once thought to be the hope for the future expansion of the Church.

But Chile is just one of many countries in the southern hemisphere where the Church is in crisis.

It is unimaginable, but more and more a real possibility, that by the year 2030 Brazil (which boasts the world’s largest Catholic population) will be so overwhelmed by Evangelical Protestantism that Catholics will become a minority among the Christian population.

The same can be said of the present Catholic countries of Latin America which are fast abandoning their Catholic beliefs for evangelical communities seen to be more welcoming and less entrenched in the customs and traditions which flow from European aristocratic Catholicism.

Getting back to Europe, the crisis within the Church shows no signs of abating.

Last week, in an address to the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Francis suggested that it was time to cluster together some of the hundreds of Italian parishes around the country. He asked the Italians to be creative in thinking about how to revive the church.

And here is an astounding fact.  In Italy, about 40 percent of Catholic parishes are now operated by Clergy born outside the country.

In mostly Catholic Luxembourg, the government, led by a gay Prime Minister, abolished religious teaching in state schools in September. 

In 2012, the Archdiocese of Vienna consolidated its 660 parishes into 150 regional Catholic communities.

In Spain, only 1 in 5 Catholics attend Mass in Spain now.

In France, it is 1 in 10. 

In the Netherlands, Mass attendance among Catholics is down to about 5 percent. 

In Germany, financial contributions have declined as more and more citizens officially leave and exempt themselves from the taxes levied upon them by the government for the support of the Church.

In Ireland, last week’s vote to abolish bans against abortion was only the latest leap away from the Church that long dominated the country’s culture. Earlier, Ireland had already voted to legalize same-sex marriage.

In America, the dignity of the Church has seriously diminished largely through self-inflicted wounds to the extent that what we are witnessing is an American Church largely convergent with the European crisis.

The result is that the Church in America holds their values and views about what is morally acceptable and permissable the same way as the French, the Germans or the British.

Of course, the answer to these unpleasant truths is prayer, asking the Holy Spirit always to guide us and to open our hearts and minds to submit to that guidance.

Without the Gospel, the world is becoming a harsher, a crueler place.

For the sake of that Gospel and the millions who are blessed by the Word and those who suffer when that Word is silenced, we pray:  Come, Holy Spirit, come!