Posted on 07/26/2008 1:44:22 PM PDT by NYer
kfd fST. LOUIS - — From as long ago as he can remember, Josey Baker's mom took him to Mass each Sunday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Parish in Columbia, Ill. From kindergarten through fifth grade, he went to Mass with his classmates every day at Immaculate Conception's school. From first grade through his senior year at Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo, Ill., Baker took religious education classes alongside math and English.
But as he grew into adulthood, the church became less important to his faith. "A lot of people say, 'You're not Catholic because you don't abide by the pope's every rule,' " said Baker, who is now 27. "But I don't feel like just because I don't go to church I'm going to hell. I can have my own relationship with God without going to church every week."
Baker said "the majority" of his friends from grade school and high school feel the same way. That sentiment — and recent statistics suggesting a gradual bleeding of church membership — has leaders of the church concerned for its future. How to herd stray Catholics back to the flock is at the top of the agenda as U.S. bishops gathered for their annual spring meeting Thursday in Orlando, Fla.
The bishops heard from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, whose pollsters released a major survey of the country's religious landscape in February. They heard from Catholic researchers at Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, who have challenged some of the Pew results, especially those regarding Catholic retention rates.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
God bless Archbishop Burke! According to the article, he wasted no time getting in contact with the advertising folks at CatholicsComeHome.
“But I don’t feel like just because I don’t go to church I’m going to hell. I can have my own relationship with God without going to church every week.”
Church is not where you are, it is who you are.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Matt. 18:20
Is the Church to be a loose conglomerate of believers or is it to be organized and structured? Scripture clearly established "offices" and a "hierarchy" among Christians. The offices of "bishop, priest (presbyter) and deacon" are mentioned in Scripture (1 Timothy 3:1,8; Titus 1:7 ). cf
I agree with you. "By their fruits, you shall know them."
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/
Catholics Come Home, Inc.
560 W. Crossville Road, Suite 101
Roswell, GA 30075
Phone: 678-585-7886 X106
A church not a place where you worship, is something with which you worship.
But where in First Timothy does it say that one person is the head?
The only problem is that the Bishops are closing all of the churches. Pretty soon there will not be any pews to go back to. The Bishop of my diocese has closed so many beautiful churches. Its a damn shame.
Is Scripture limited to First Timothy? Have you not read the Gospels of Matthew and John? What about the Acts of the Apostles?
In which diocese do you reside?
Cute.
I didn’t think that Archbishop Burke was in St. Louis any more. I thought he was in Rome.
Is this another bishop who extending this welcome?
There are many returning Catholic programs.
Our church does one entitled, “Catholics Can Come Home Again.”
Excellent program
The "spirit" of Vatican II rears its ugly head. People get the impression, as the young man in the article says, that they don't need sacraments or fellowship. The priesthood is devalued to the extent that the heroic commitment, or at least the heroic attempt, is not seen as something worth the effort.
Fewer clergy -> closed parishes.
Humanae Vitae came out 40 years ago. Around the same time, popular culture was telling us that having children was selfish. The generosity and sacrifice of fecundity was devalued. Generosity generally was increasingly out-sourced to the government as even the deduction for charitable giving was limited.
Once again: fewer generous men making the generous commitment to priesthood. Sooner or later that's going to mean consolidation of parishes.
It's not necessarily all the fault of your bishop, I think.
You made some excellent points about the societal norms at work when VCII was held. Timing is everything and it could not have been a worse time to "open the windows". There has been great focus on the negative results from that Council and little on the positive. Benedict XVI committed his papacy to 'fully implementing' what the Council envisaged, not individual bishops. We are seeing those fruits, now.
Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
Did you ever stop to think that the reason that bishops are closing churches is because there are no longer enough people in those parishes to support them financially.
There are 2 reasons that bishops are closing churches: 1) The demographic shift of Catholics from city neighborhoods into suburbs; and 2) the dramatic decline in Mass attendance. It doesn’t make sense, financially or otherwise, for dioceses to keep open parishes in urban areas that have lost population, or at least to keep all of these parishes open.
But we have come to the point in time where the decline in Mass attendance is affecting the financial well-being of parishes. In most parishes, only 25% to 33% of registered parishioners attend Mass every Sunday and actually support the parish financially, which means that the other 66% to 75% do not. If some of these people started practicing their faith, the finances of most parishes would improve dramatically.
The closing of churches is the direct result of these two factors it isn’t the cause of either one of them. It’s too bad that beautiful churches are being closed but keeping them open won’t bring lapsed Catholics back.
as I've said before, a wag said of Vatican II, the Spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life.
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