The Shrinking Church of Nice: Vortex

Bam, bam. Two Vortex episodes in a row that hammer away at the causes of the crisis in the Church, and how to correct them. I was going to combine them into one post, but there is much to say, and I try to keep these posts relatively short. So, consider this part one of two, and see my comments on the August 23 Vortex as a separate post.

The August 22 Vortex, “Dying on the Vine”, made me want to organize a picket line at the chancery office – at chancery offices all over the country – with signs reading, "Bishops: Teach the Faith!"

MV reports that the annual Pew Research survey shows that the percentage of Catholics who consider themselves “strong” Catholics is at an all-time low – just 27% - the lowest figure EVER in the nearly 40 years the survey has been being conducted. MV goes on to say that

Among Catholics…who count themselves as STRONG Catholics, only HALF say they attend Mass at least once a week, 53 percent. That is nearly incredible. Half of the Catholics who say “I’m a strong Catholic” don’t go to Mass [on a weekly basis]. If this doesn’t – in one glaringly blinding snapshot – prove that the leadership of the Church in America is simply out to lunch, and has been for decades, nothing does. The Church of Nice continues to shrivel up because the leaders won’t do what needs to be done.

To be certain, it has taken 40 years for these numbers to plummet to their current all-time low. This situation was inherited, not caused, by the current class of bishops and that is very unfortunate for them – a rotten position to be in.

That said – they ARE the leaders NOW and it is up to them to clean up the mess and that quite evidently, by every single measure possible – is simply not happening. What IS happening is a never-ending drumbeat of promoting social justice issues, and as is very obvious by now, this promotion is being done at the expense of spiritual concerns – and it is beyond galling for Faithful Catholics.

Promotion of social justice issues is often at the expense of fighting the evil of abortion and contraception, as well.

Again, we here at Church Militant.TV ask the question: WHY DOES THE MAINSTREAM CATHOLIC MEDIA NEVER talk about these things and call the bishops to account?

Yes; why?! Well, MV answers that question, but let me  preface his answer with an example. I appreciate much of the work of the National Catholic Register, as a faithful counterpart to the atrociously non-Catholic (and sometimes anti-Catholic) National Kathlic Fishwrap, but even the NCRegister often turns a blind eye to the crisis in the Church. For instance, I noticed a story today entitled “Looking at the Good Fruit of WYD Denver 1993”.  Look at this excerpt (my emphases):

According to Father Buelt, the effects of WYD weren't particular to Denver, but spread nationally and internationally. "Every one of those 225,000 young people returned home and reinvigorated their own churches, communities and families. I'm always concerned that Denver is made to look like some sort of kingly beneficiary. We're just a place in which the Holy Spirit touched the lives of 225,000 youth who went out and made disciples."

This is blatant propaganda. To you believe for one minute that Fr. Buelt knows for a fact what each of those 225,000 young people did? That's just plain ridiculous. And if those 225,000 young people went out and made disciples...well, where the heck are they?! The Church is shrinking, as MV has so aptly pointed out any number of times in any number of ways, and this continued pollyanna approach – that all is well in the Church, and our youth will save us – does nothing to alleviate the crisis.

Here’s MV’s answer to why the mainstream Catholic media doesn’t address the crisis:

The reason is because they are part of the problem. They rely on the bishops for money, access, self-promotion and everything else that comes with running a business, and they aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them. So they stay silent about the true cause of the crisis – the very leaders they all have such friendly relationships with. They would never ever say a word about horrible leadership – and let’s be clear: this is all – ALL – on the leaders.

When a situation is THIS bad, there is no way the leadership can duck responsibility. The American episcopate has acquiesced to nearly every cultural fad you can name. The liturgies range from boring and uninspiring to plain jokes. Education, authentic Catholic education hasn’t happened in Catholic schools for decades.

Religious instruction in parishes doesn’t exist except by highly opinionated Catholics who have very little knowledge about the Church’s authentic teachings and feel quite free to insert their personal views in place of those teachings.

...

This isn’t rocket science. Catholics don’t know their faith, don’t care about it, don’t identify with it, and are leaving the Church because they haven’t been taught it. And whose fault is that? Those in charge of teaching. Is this true of every single bishop in the country? No. Is it true of most? Well, it can’t be the case that most, the vast majority, are doing their jobs if these are the results. The only reasonable conclusion is that MOST are not doing what they are supposed to do.

So, back to my fantasy scenario at the beginning – picketing the chanceries across the nation, demanding that bishops do their duty and teach the faith…

Do you think they will EVER listen?! Actually, I think the answer to that is "no". The bishops entrenched in their fantasy of "all's right with the Church" are not going to change. We need new bishops – bishops who already see the problem without us telling them about it.

The key is to get Rome to appoint new bishops who fit that description, because the fact is there are priests out there who fit the bill (and even some bishops), but they are the ones like Fr. Michael Rodriguez, who get persecuted by their liberal bishops and shunted off to the hinterlands as a means of containing their orthodoxy and preventing it from “contaminating” the liberal-indoctrinated faithful.

The key, then, is prayer - although I must mention that I am aware of a letter-writing campaign in which a group of faithful have been petitioning Rome to make Fr. Rodriguez a bishop. I had never thought about that strategy before. Still, prayer is key; our actions are secondary. As MV says in concluding this Vortex:

Pray for these men my fellow Catholics. Their duties are enormous, their responsibilities enormous, but they have been given the grace of office to carry them out. Pray for them that they return to their actual duties, that they get on the ball and turn this sorry, sorry state of affairs around.

And as Rod Pead says,

Have we prayed and fasted and done penance and really begged God on our knees to convert the hearts and minds of the bishops? Have we consistently pleaded with Him to take the hirelings who will not respond to His grace to their early reward, and send us real Catholic Shepherds in their stead?

Pray and fast, friends. (And stay tuned for the sequel Vortex, "Blindness About Obama", tomorrow.)

Here's the Vortex, with the full script following.

If the Catholic Church were a business held to the same standards as any other business in America, nearly every single bishop would be summarily fired. They’d be lucky to get out the door with even half their pension intact. And all their cronies in the chanceries and Catholic media establishment would have long ago been shown the door, not letting it hit you know what on the way out.

The latest research numbers are in from Pew Research and there is simply no excuse whatsoever for the results.

A little background about the research. Every year Pew does a nationwide study it calls its General Social Survey, measuring all kinds of things.

One area is religion and in that area they take specific measure of how strongly a person identifies with his or her faith, they ask them, do you consider yourself a “strong” Catholic or Protestant or whatever.

Newsflash: the percentage of Catholics who consider themselves STRONG Catholics is at an all-time low, the lowest figure EVER in the nearly 40 years the survey has been being conducted.

And in case the argument in defense of this horrible news is offered that – well the same thing is happening to Protestants – nope!

Among various protestant groups the opposite phenomenon is occurring. 54 percent, over half of Protestants, twice as much as Catholics self-identify as STRONG Protestants.

So less and less Catholics feel any real touchstone to their faith. BUT that’s not all. If you read deeper into the numbers and do a little extrapolating, things are even worse than at first glance.

Among Catholics, remember, who count themselves as STRONG Catholics, only HALF say they attend Mass at least once a week, 53 percent. That is nearly incredible.

Half of the Catholics who say “I’m a strong Catholic” don’t go to Mass. If this doesn’t, in one glaringly blinding snapshot, prove that the leadership of the Church in America is simply out to lunch and has been for decades, nothing does. The Church of Nice continues to shrivel up because the leaders won’t do what needs to be done.

To be certain, it has taken 40 years for these numbers to plummet to their current all-time low. This situation was inherited, not caused, by the current class of bishops and that is very unfortunate for them – a rotten position to be in.

That said – they ARE the leaders NOW and it is up to them to clean up the mess and that quite evidently, by every single measure possible – is simply not happening. What IS happening is a never-ending drumbeat of promoting social justice issues, and as is very obvious by now, this promotion is being done at the expense of spiritual concerns – and it is beyond galling for Faithful Catholics.

Again, we here at Church Militant.TV ask the question: WHY DOES THE MAINSTREAM CATHOLIC MEDIA NEVER talk about these things and call the bishops to account?

The reason is because they are part of the problem. They rely on the bishops for money, access, self-promotion and everything else that comes with running a business and they aren’t about to bite the hand that feeds them. So they stay silent about the true cause of the crisis – the very leaders they all have such friendly relationships with.

They would never ever say a word about horrible leadership – and let’s be clear – this is all – ALL – on the leaders.

When a situation is THIS bad, there is no way the leadership can duck responsibility. The American episcopate has acquiesced to nearly every cultural fad you can name. The liturgies range from boring and uninspiring to plain jokes. Education, authentic Catholic education hasn’t happened in Catholic schools for decades.

Religious instruction in parishes doesn’t exist except by highly opinionated Catholics who have very little knowledge about the Church’s authentic teachings and feel quite free to insert their personal views in place of those teachings.

Many of the clergy themselves, MANY of them, either don’t know the faith or don’t care about it, suffering from the effects of not only horrible catechesis they got as children, but also further proof of the rotten formation they got in seminary.

This isn’t rocket science, Catholics don’t know their faith, don’t care about, don’t identify with it and are leaving the Church because they haven’t been taught it. And whose fault is that?

Those in charge of teaching. Is this true of every single bishop in the country? No. Is it true of most? Well, it can’t the case that most, the vast majority are doing their jobs if these are the results. The only reasonable conclusion is that MOST are not doing what they are supposed to do.

A bishop is the chief teacher in his diocese. He is the chief liturgist in his diocese. If the teachings and the Mass are in shambles – it falls on him.

For once and for all – stop telling us to contact our congressmen about this liberal policy platform of which good men can disagree and get to work on what you are supposed to be concerned about – saving souls and strengthening the faith – over which no good men can disagree.

Scoring personal goodie points for backing various initiatives with some degree of popular support won’t count for a thing when you stand before Our Lord in a few years, if not sooner and have to explain why so many souls went to Hell on your watch.

Pray for these men my fellow Catholics. Their duties are enormous, their responsibilities enormous, but they have been given the grace of office to carry them out. Pray for them that return to their actual duties they get on the ball and turn this sorry sorry state of affairs around.