“The Numbers” Don’t Look Good—What Should the Church Do?

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Except Tridentine Mass was not the solution. It was a cultural thing, and very ancient and good thing but in that time, people generally did not participate at all and mostly prayed rosaries during Liturgy without paying attention to the Priest (at least in my country). Right now, Tridentine Mass is attended by those who wish to attend it and therefore they pay utmost attention, and reverence from and towards EF is very respectable- but it was not the case pre-V2, not everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I like EF and I think it should be not only more available but also every Priest should be educated to celebrate it.
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But my usual preference is for the OF. So also for most people I know who are trying to restore doctrinal Orthodoxy and evangelize. We want the OF without abuses, but don’t consider the OF an abuse.
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If OF was available in Ad Orientem form, I think many EF-goers would be satisfied. OF is prone to liturgical abuses more than EF because those who choose to celebrate EF do so with goal of celebrating it according to norms established by Church and are very strict about it. Practically speaking, if Church reversed OF and EF, EF would probably have problems with abuses and OF would probably not.
 
We need to unite ourselves to Our Lord.
We need to live lives of purity and transparency.
We need to love our neighbor as God loves us.
We need to preach the Good News.

After that, it’s not for us to fuss about.
 
Also, this is not directed at you personally, OP, but these kinds of topics pop up from time to time, about how we should be worried about the numbers.

This is more of a broader question.
Does modern man have a popularity issue? I mean, trends and movements have always been with us, but I noticed some time back, that books and novels written before 1900 rarely mentioned popularity as a thing to be sought after. The focus was more on doing the right thing, or finding a spouse and settle down, or thrilling adventures, but not on gaining popularity.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Does modern man have a popularity issue? I mean, trends and movements have always been with us, but I noticed some time back, that books and novels written before 1900 rarely mentioned popularity as a thing to be sought after
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True. I wonder if the excessive proccupation with stats is also an American or a Western issue. For instance when the media demands our attention to hourly updates on the size of the Antarctic ice sheet, you wonder what more important things they
are pulling our attention away from (prayer, family life, our own particular jobs). Stats worship may be part of the Tyrrany of the urgent

If each of us would do our own personal job more attentively and prayerfully, the overall stats would improve.

Detailed statistic reports (to the generals) were necessary to wage WW2, but would we have won the war if 10 million soldiers took a few hours each day to read them?
 
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The Church should continue to preach the truth of Jesus Christ. “The numbers” are in God’s hands.

This is not a popularity contest. It is not and will never be popular to be Catholic or to live in accordance with what God wants.
 
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True. I wonder if the excessive proccupation with stats is also an American or a Western issue.
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Yes; it’s also a preoccupation of people who have spent too much time following media that finds a new daily crisis under every bush so they will have “news” to report on.
 
it was opinion of Fathers of Ecumenical Council, hence if not infallible it was normative in very least- however, it is discipline. While fact Tridentine Mass was not solution won’t probably change maybe Tridentine Mass will be solution later on, we never know. I like Tridentine Mass and it’s implications as much as I love pre-V2 spirituality, but I do not view it as magical solution to everything nor do I think it was perfect pre-V2. If it were perfect, nobody would change it. However, what is sad is misinterpretation of some V2 teachings and how far Mass committee went with some changes that were not called for with V2 reform.
 
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Ms.Lady, if you don’t mind me asking, do you have much hope for the Church and souls despite demographic trends?
 
People look for whatever source is teaching the truth; specifically those truths that are, right now, forgotten or unpopular.

St JP2 taught exactly that. He attracted disciples willing to change, willing to work, for Christ and the Church. By restoring doctrinal clarity he reversed the drop in seminarians, attracted a wave of conversions from Evangelicalism and Anglicanism. He taught currently unfamiliar truths, that were not taught outside the Church.

Pope Francis also speaks truths, but mostly the familiar truths, the truths already mostly accepted in the West at the moment. He teaches no unfamiliar truths. He does not build disciples, he attracts admirers.

I have heard, or read about, many people who “like” Pope Francis, almost in a social media sense. I hear about no one inspired to enter seminary or religious life, or encouraged to learn more Catholic doctrine, or return to the sacraments, or to change, in any way, by Pope Francis.
 
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