Posted on 01/10/2014 10:15:47 AM PST by NYer
.- The story of the U.S. Catholic Church in the early 21st century is one of excitement and renewal, say two authors of a book that examines successful dioceses, bishops and priests.
“The priesthood is growing. There are also vibrant signs of life among the laity and throughout the Church. Those stories need to be told,” Christopher White, the director of education and programs at the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture, told CNA Dec. 12.
White is the co-author of “Renewal,” a new book from Encounter Books which makes the case that Catholicism is recovering from decades of “faithless practice” and confusion.
He said this recovery is especially evident in parishes that express “a stronger Catholic identity.”
His co-author, Anne Hendershott, who is a sociology professor and director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville, said writing the book has given her new appreciation for U.S. Catholicism.
“I haven’t been as excited about the religion as I am now,” she said. “There have been times when I was discouraged and I believed the media presentations of the religion as being in decline.”
The book “Renewal” focuses on areas where the Catholic Church is showing revitalization. Ordination rates to the priesthood are at a 20-year high, and the average age of new priests continues to decline. Ten years ago, the Church struggled under the weight of the clergy sexual abuse scandal; now many seminaries are at full capacity.
The new generation of priests consists of men who are “wholly committed” to their vocation and consider celibacy “a grace and benefit to ministry,” White said.
“They are unafraid to be counter-cultural,” he added. “I think in previous generations...you had individuals that in some ways wanted to straddle both worlds and in some ways make the priesthood and the Church as well conform to the ways of the world.”
He drew on his own experience as a convert to Catholicism, which was “very different” from what he had heard about the Catholic faith in his upbringing and in cultural commentary.
“If you would have asked me 10 years ago to describe the Catholic Church, [I would have said it was] a dated institution with a dying membership whose teachings were confusing, whose members were negligent in the practice of their faith.”
Attending church in Manhattan, he instead found “very solid” parishes with “dynamic” parish priests.
Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI helped provide “definitive interpretations” of the Second Vatican Council, the book's authors continued. Unity and outspokenness among the bishops have increased, while dissenting Catholic factions have declined in prominence.
“Catholicism has always stood for something, but we didn’t always have bishops who were able to project that very well,” Hendershott said. “They seemed reticent, reluctant to talk about the truth of the religion. And now we have all these great priests and bishops that are talking about it. And they’re not
embarrassed about it, they’re not ashamed.”
The book emphasizes the role of bishops in creating a fruitful culture in their dioceses. It examines dioceses that have “transformational leaders,” outlining their best practices.
Bishops who are clear about Catholic teaching and “bold in defending the Church in the public square” attract more people, White said.
Hendershott stressed that Catholicism is not simply about morality and the Catechism. Rather, people are “drawn to the beauty of the religion.”
In dioceses where bishops can express this beauty through music, liturgy, and homilies, she said, “you are going to have flourishing vocations.”
She added that a demanding form of religion, rather than a lax one, tends to attract.
“The more a religion asks of believers, the more vibrant that religion will be. There’s got to be a reason for people to be part of a religion, or else they’ll just go to the movies,” she said, citing sociologist Rodney Stark.
Hendershott and White both see room for continued improvement, especially in Catholic higher education.
“Renewal is on the way, but we’re not fully there yet,” White said.
Many institutions of Catholic higher education need to do better in helping pass on the faith to future generations and encouraging new vocations, he said.
“We’ve got to get that right,” he emphasized.
Does anyone really keep official, accurate and vetted numbers?
No. I’ve done business with a number of churches over the years and getting a real number of attenders/members/congregants/ whatever is next to impossible. That’s not a bad thing.
“Demographer Mary Gautier of the center said counting Catholics is really more art than science because parish rolls may not be up to date. Many Catholics drift from parish to parish without formally changing their membership and often don’t report deaths in their families, the newspaper said.”
This isn’t really relevant to counting. I live in a small city where we have 2 primary parishes and there are 3-4 in the smaller outlying communities. We belong as members to St. Mary’s as my wife’s family helped to build that church after immigrating from Germany. However, we most often attend the church across the city as we like the hour and music at the Mass. We go back and forth and know each community fairly well. But for counting purposeds, going from parish to parish simply doesn’t matter. We are counted once in the official parish we are registered at.
You believe that you are being counted at St. Mary's because you are "registered" there, even though you do not attend there often. How do you know you are not also being counted by the church across the city, for being a body counted at occupying a pew, or possibly for leaving a personal check in the offering plate? How does your wife know she is no longer being counted by the church in Germany, for having been baptized as a child in that parish?
Good questions and simply answered.
There is a registration process, which we completed upon arriving here. This is the only avenue to be listed as an official member in a parish. I would assume most parishes are organized this way.
There is flow to and fro the various churches. The priests with their limited staff, couldn’t possibly keep up with all of the attendees home churches.
If anything, my guess is that the parishes are under counted, because some people don’t read the bulletins and even officially register.
You know what they say about assumptions :) What process did you follow to have yourselves removed as official members of each previous parish, as you departed?
We have moved three times.
Each time we moved, it was the same process. We filled out a “change of address /changing parish” form.
As the poster above wrote, you need to just come Home and try out the process for yourself....hehehe.
“Most membership surveys don’t actually count who’s in the pews on Sunday”
I don’t know if it is being done elsewhere, but the Archdiocese of St. Louis has for the past two years been counting who’s in the pews.
Thanks for the clarification of how the process works in your area. In agreement with my earlier-cited sources, you've kept the books straight because you filled out the proper forms:
Many Catholics drift from parish to parish without formally changing their membershipNow allow me to point out what rwa265 says about how members are counted in his area:
rwa265: I don’t know if it is being done elsewhere, but the Archdiocese of St. Louis has for the past two years been counting who’s in the pews.
So one diocese counts membership rolls, while another counts bodies in the pew. How does the latter know whether to count that body as Catholic? Allow me to direct your attention back to those earlier-cited sources, which said:
Most membership surveys don't actually count who's in the pews on Sunday....That means it is possible, for example, to be born Catholic, married Methodist, die Lutheran and still be listed as a member of the 1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church. "The Catholic understanding of membership is that a person becomes a member upon baptism and remains a member for life," Gautier said. "Whether you show up at church or not is not what determines whether you're a member."
rwa265: I don’t know if it is being done elsewhere, but the Archdiocese of St. Louis has for the past two years been counting who’s in the pews.
Most membership surveys don’t actually count who’s in the pews on Sunday....That means it is possible, for example, to be born Catholic, married Methodist, die Lutheran and still be listed as a member of the 1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church. “The Catholic understanding of membership is that a person becomes a member upon baptism and remains a member for life,” Gautier said. “Whether you show up at church or not is not what determines whether you’re a member.” “
In order to look at this subjectively and analytically, I think we can, because either way the numbers roll out, it doesn’t really attract or detract from either of our perspectives on the Catholic Church.
Our perspectives are apart on The Church. Either way it doesn’t detract from my perspective. We don’t know whether God is going to cleanse and leave a remnant of true believers or if He will bring many in with his Mercy and Grace. So, these numbers aren’t truly important to me, as my predilection is that as secular culture takes over, both Catholic and Protestand/Evangelics/Others who stick to The Word of God...will be fewer and fewer.
In the long run, I’d rather have a smaller remnant than those who choose to come every Sunday and vote for abortionist attackers of Christianity like Obama. Don’t get me wrong, I pray for their souls and hope with humility that their delusions are taken away and they can see Light.
“rwa265: I don’t know if it is being done elsewhere, but the Archdiocese of St. Louis has for the past two years been counting who’s in the pews.”
I highly doubt that this accounting is for official membership. It is more likely they want to see the percentage of parishioners that actually attend Mass and at what frequency.
But, let’s assume I am incorrect. These “pew” numbers are going to decrease the official numbers, not increase them. We already know that in every Catholic Church and in every non Catholic Church we have many more on the rolls than in the pews. This is just fact. Simply go to a Sunday Mass or Service and count up the numbers. Then go to Mass or Service on Christmas or Easter. Many more Catholics and Presbyterians simply don’t go for various reasons.
I’m pretty sure that, there is a total number per parish that can reasonably be accounted by the official rolls.
Maybe our resident FR priests, deacons, ministers could shed some light on how the operations are conducted in their respective parishes.
Of course, we are blessed with an excellent Bishop and many holy priests.
Arizona State University also has a vibrant Newman Center with excellent leadership.
So I guess it all depends where the media focuses.
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Both “decline” and “vibrant revival” theories are true because the terms are defined differently.
In terms of membership, it is natural to see a decline, for given modern culture, the Church more and more is a counter-cultural institution. And indeed, we are a late antiquity-early medieval community at our core. It is a miracle anyone has stayed.
In terms of quality, there are signs of vibrancy and the authors list them: growth in priesthood, increased orthodoxy of the priests, celebration of the celibacy, stability of parishes that promote Catholic distinctives, high profile of recent popes, lots of interest in proper liturgy.
I think, the Church will continue, for a while, to shrink in numbers and grow in the faith of the Catholic remnant, which increasingly will be the light in America, and possibly the only light that is left. Thank God for that.
No, mass immigration is what the denomination depends on.
**The packed to overflowing RCIA classes are the reason**
Same out here in the west.
We also have two census Sundays — usually two weeks apart.
It's nice to see the Usual Suspects whistling past the graveyard full of failed non-Catholic groups, though.
As usual, propagandists eventually fall for their own propaganda, in this case the "it's Mesikans an' imgrants" canard, and are stunned when reality finally hits them upside the head with a 2x4.
RCIA classes aren't packed with already faithful Catholics new to this country, they're packed with former Evangelicals and Independents who have realized that Self and Self Alone is now and always has been just a deceptive packaging of the secular humanist dogmas of "do your own thing" and "man answers to Self, not to God".
LOL! That's like when were around 12 years old, and if a boy liked a girl, he would constantly throw orange peel at her, and pull at her bag strap.
I think you may well have hit the nail on the head. I’ve seen anecdotal reports to the effect that once a Parish dedicates just one Mass a week to the Latin Mass, attendance suddenly jumps up. Orthodoxy works because its rich in meaning and context and people really want something they can sink their teeth into.
As for the Church to be the last remaining light in the US, I’m not so sure the Gov’t won’t intervene to kill that light or at least, hide it under a bushel basket of regulations. Hasn’t that been the Canadian experience? or not. I don’t know.
I wonder how many other dioceses/archdioceses are conducting physical counts. I would guess that if two are doing it, several others would also be doing it.
Well, of course. It is "intervening to kill" now. Governments want pocket churches, uncentralized and without hierarchy; they don't want the Catholic Church.
However, the Church never lost a battle; we won't lose this one.
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