Hi. I was just wondering what happend to all the Cathlics during the 1970’s?
I mean I’m only 34 and I was born in 77. But did a lot of Catholics quit going to Mass back then or what? Or did they just become spiritual but not religioius?]
Anyone older than me care to expalin?
Thanks…
Dear jason3477,
Cordial greetings and a warm welcome to the world of CAF. Thankyou for the above question, dear friend.
The decline in Mass attendance in the Western World is, I think, largely owing to the whole impact of the moral and cultural revolution of the
Sixties and its godless and secular ideology. Alas, the spirit of the age has penetrated the walls of Holy Mother Church, meeting with little or no resistance by the faithful. Consequently, many modern Catholics have adopted a hand in hand with the world type of approach to their religion, a ‘Catholicism Lite’, if you please, which makes very little demand upon them in terms of thoroughgoing Christian discipleship and serious abstention from worldly pleasures. Thus it is hardly surprising that irregular or non-attendance at Mass has become all too common as a consequence of such worldliness. However, what surely admits of no doubt at all is that men have decidedly not become more “spiritual” in recent times.
Other factors have undoubtedly played a part in the general state of deterioration and the Laodicean lukewarmness with which contemporary Catholicism is now beset, but it is an undeniable fact that many of the faithful in our age have succumbed to the secular drift and have been contented with much lower standards. This would have been unthinkable to our Catholic forefathers, who always strived to live up to the arduous demands of their Faith. Naturally, this ‘Catholicism Lite’ approach to our holy religion has taken its toll as regards the ardent undertaking of obligations and observations, including Mass attendance.
It is right and necessary to give a diagnostic analysis of our present desperate plight, but it is imperative that we also honestly address the issues and seek an effective remedy, thus setting in order those things that are wanting.
First, we need again to manfully face up to the challenges of Catholic living in an increasingly irreligious and amoral world. This will necessarily entail daring to be different and offering our decadent age a credible alternative Christian counter-culture that is unashamedly unworldly.
Second, we must counteract that effete but wide-spread desire to make things pleasant in our religion by avoidance of almost everything that savours of self-denial or renouncing “a few of our favourite things”. How often do we hear modern day Catholics vociferously declaring that we must be ‘world-affirming and not world-denying’, or that we must not be prissy prudes or ‘overscrupulous’ when it comes to indulging in worldly amusements? There is a warped view held by many of the younger generation of emerging Catholics, that one can plunge into just about any pleasure that appeals to the senses and yet still remain a Catholic in good standing. That evinces a monumental failure to think with an authentically Catholic mind, but this in turn stems from inadeqaute catechesis which in turn stems from succumbing to the secular drift and assimilation of the worldly spirit.
Third, we surely also need to reflect upon the sobering truth that the whole course of this earthly life is a state of probation and that we must, if we are to enter life eternal, “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, to qoute St. Paul. The salvation of a soul is an difficult business involving daily penitence, frequent Mass attendance, good works and self-denial by taking up our cross and following Christ. A half-hearted and shallow desire full of compromise with the godless world, will hardly suffice. Only an earnest laying hold upon eternal life
now and a burning desire to enter in “by the narrow door” will be blessed with success. However, is this the religion of multitudes who profess the Catholic religion today? It would probably be contemptuously dismissed as a recipe for ‘kill-joy religion’ and Puritanism, not that the Puritan saints could not teach us Catholics a few things about devout living. Be that as it may, sanctity and separation from the godless world is one of the grand evidences of a work of grace within a man’s heart, as the lives of the choicest saints bear ample testimony.
Finally, and I aplogise for the homily, dear friend, but the antidote to all our present ills, including this fall in Mass attendence of which you speak, is really to heed the call for sanctity and separation from the godless world and its deplorable standards. Only this ardent pursuit of holiness will stimulate a more thoroughgoing approach to the obligations and observances of our most holy religion.
God bless and I do hope that was of some help. Thankyou for suffering a lengthy post, dear friend.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax
I had no idea about the my true faith. My dad was a former seminarian and he tried to teach me but I only saw it as, “Dad telling me what to do”. But he did instill in me a healthy fear of God. On my own I kind of fell away but had a reversion in the late 90s/early 2000s. What brought me back? Finally learning my faith. A lot of , “Wow, I didn’t know that!”. I thank Our Lady for that (particularly Our Lady of Fatima). 
(I shudder to think about that!) and in the next breath they would talk about how much they pray the rosary (often). :whacky::banghead: