The American Church’s bleak future none of the Bishops are willing to address.
The Catholic Church will have a reduced presence and relevance in 21st Century America, mostly due to the aging profile of Priests and the lack of new Ordinations.
The Church’s human resources, stretched to the limits already, will be inadequate to respond to the needs of the faithful. Fewer and fewer parishes will enjoy the benefits of a resident Pastor. More and more parishes will be administered by Permanent Deacons or lay administrators.
The number of Masses available to the faithful will continue to shrink as limitations imposed on when Sacraments such as Marriage and Baptism can be celebrated or administered.
More and more parishes will share a Pastor who will be forced to delegate administrative matters to lay managers who salaries will put strains upon parish budgets and financial resources.
Marginalized Catholics -- the elderly, chronically infirm -- will be forgotten in the consolidation of multiple parishes into regional communities of faith.
All this will take place in the face of the reality that Catholic practice is already in a state of decline with fewer and fewer people identifying as Catholics, nor do they feel the need to actively engage with their local parish on a regular or frequent basis.
What is being done to prepare for this future or perhaps forestall its reality?
Little, if anything. And largely because the Bishops are loathe to admit what the present state of the Church is in their respective Dioceses.
So, for the time being, Bishops have been playing “musical chairs” in parish consolidations here and there, in the realignment of Priest personnel, and in the meager proactive programs they have initiated to inform the laity of what they should expect within the next decade.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) continues to pretend that the American Church will quickly rebound from the chaos, confusion and shame Catholics have had to endure on the local and national level.
Most parishes are in financial freefall. Diocese have been forced to liquidate values parcels of real estate as well as valuable investment portfolios to compensate victims of abuse and cover astronomical legal costs attendant to the abuse scandals.
What does the USCCB have to say about this?
Nothing, other than to call upon its members to increase their assessments and raise the USCCB operational budget to over $ 162.5 million annually to fund agencies and programs which have little impact upon the average Catholic who is struggling to remain in the pew and hold on to his or her Catholic identity.
As I written repeatedly, the Catholic Faith in Europe is dead. Less than 4% of Catholics on the Continent practice their faith with any regularity or frequency. Culturally and politically, the Church has no impact upon the governance of what was once identifiable as a “Christian Europe”.
The American Church is going the same way as the Church in Europe.
And, from what I read as well as what I see in the actions and agenda of the USCCB, none of the hierarchy in the country seem willing or able to stem the tide of defections and indifference which will spell the end of a Catholic presence in America.
But, the buck doesn’t stop with the USCCB.
Two great cultures -- Europe and America -- are in peril of losing their Catholic (and Christian) identities.
The Holy See appears completely oblivious, more intent in preserving structures and positions than adopting a strategy by which the Catholic faithful will be effectively shepherded and the Church called to a revival of evangelical faith.
Appointed by God, Jonah (albeit reluctantly) called the people of Nineveh to repent and cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes asking the Lord for forgive and spare them and their city.
Has the Lord broken His Promise to the Church?
Has He abandoned His People?
Is there no Jonah to call the People of God to conversion?
Or have those the Lord has called chosen, as Jonah did, evade God’s call, to sail away from the Divine prophetic mission the Lord has imposed upon their shoulders?
Our Church is wounded to its core.
The Bishops have become pitiable in their failure to care for those entrusted to them.
The Holy See and the Vicar of Christ Himself have been accused of compromising the supreme magisterial authority to accommodate the Church to those whose lives are chaotic and sinful.
The once-promising Pontificate of Pope Francis has suffered a mortal wound in the doubt and confusions resulting from the deafening silence that emanates from the Vatican itself.
If the Church ever needed purification and revival, it needs it now.
If the Church ever needed a prophet, it needs one now.
Lord, send us Your prophet to call us to repent of our infidelities and betrayals, to do penance for the shame and suffering we have caused or allowed, to convert our minds and hearts more fully to You.
Come, dear Holy Spirit, come! You are Our Desire, Our Hope and Our Peace!
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