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At least the laity knows what they believe and what to stand up for

I don't believe that for a second. Some do but very few and that is the problem. For the most part parents in families have failed to hand down our sacred traditions. They brag about using artificial means of birth control. Look around you in your churches. How many families have more than three or more children? Very few. How many do you see involved in invalid marriages are marching up to receive communion? Look at the way the laity dress when they come to Mass. The signs are there for people who come to Sunday Eucharist to come modestly attired and still they come in haltars, tanktops and short shorts.----They have ignored the teaching of the Church proclaimed by many good priests throughout this nation. How many families gather with their children for an evening meal and then say the Rosary together every night. Most of our children don't even know the Rosary and many of the parents don't either.

Two hundred years ago in this nation the Catholic populace was more instructed in the teachings and practices of the Church than the children of today and they didn't have the advantage of Catholic schools and there were only a handful of priests in the whole nation. Yet the faith flourished because the homes were Catholic.

Basketball and tball and sports have replaced the Church and Christ as being the center of family life. I recently heard of one Catholic family who wouldn't let their daughter go see the Pope in Canada this summer because to do so she would have to miss her basketball camp. The girl wanted to go and the parents would not let her.

Don't go giving me all this "the faithful" bit. We are as much to blame and even moreso than our priests and bishops for this mess we are in.

Whoa!! I think you kind of went off there! I didn't say all the laity but the ones I am associated with are just as I describe them. As long as there are faithful in the Church there will be hope for the future.

I'm certainly no pollyanna, this scandal has thrown me for a loop but my faith is strong. And I can only do what I can do, ask God to have mercy on His Church and pray. I can and do try to be informed about what I should know as a Catholic and I know many more than myself. Are there misinformed people out there? Yeah, sure! Some are just plain ignorant and want to stay that way, some want to believe what they want to believe because they think it makes life easier for them and some could care less but the core of the laity, is informed and filled with faith. They can't change everything that is wrong overnight but their perseverance will pay off in the long run.

My son's church has a wonderful Opus Dei priest. There are children everywhere, and they have Perpetual Adoration of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

I'm told I'm old fashioned because I believe the answer for every troubled heart and our troubled Church can be found in spending our time with attentive minds and heartfelt devotion while adoring Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

"For the most part parents in families have failed to hand down our sacred traditions. They brag about using artificial means of birth control. Look around you in your churches. How many families have more than three or more children? Very few. How many do you see involved in invalid marriages are marching up to receive communion? Look at the way the laity dress when they come to Mass. The signs are there for people who come to Sunday Eucharist to come modestly attired and still they come in haltars, tanktops and short shorts.----They have ignored the teaching of the Church proclaimed by many good priests throughout this nation. How many families gather with their children for an evening meal and then say the Rosary together every night. Most of our children don't even know the Rosary and many of the parents don't either."

This is all true, every word but it isn't just the parents...many states have usurped parental authority in education to the degree that the current generation never knew it was theirs to begin with and I can see in my own parish how the DRE does the same. I had to go to the Director of Religious Education in my Archdiocese just to get our parental rights to teach the faith to our children in our home as part of their Catholic Homeschool curricula. And then the DRE wouldn't let me use my choice of books even though they were approved by the NCCB...so I told her my daughter(turned 9 last month) was using the CCC(and she is.) Unfortunately the crisis in the Church is tied into the education machinery too.