Church programs

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margaret42 said:
Not really sure where to put this, since similar topics have been shown. But does anyone think the decline in
yearly retreat attendance is due to more flexible changes since Vatican 2?
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No, I think its due to the fact that America- and especially American Catholics- are a lot more mobile and a lot more affluent than they were 50 years ago.

People have the means to go on a retreat individually at any time without coordinating a trip with the other folks from the neighborhood. They have the flexibility.

I remember visiting my grandparents and my great aunts back in the day. Two of my great aunts were sort of wild driving from Michigan to Pittsburgh and going to different vacation spots and that- but they weren’t immigrants.

The older school people stayed where they were at and didn’t think of driving off somewhere.
 
It’s probably “quite high” to make up for at least 50% of Catholics who don’t come. And then when they want to go, it’s not affordable.
 
I don’t know where you live…it must be true there if you said so.

I have been hearing of retreats for a long time. I am in my eighties and still go on retreats.

Some of them have been retreats that can be commuted to. They can be given in a church by a retreat master, and the retreatants go home to sleep and come back after breakfast in the morning. They start one evening and are finished two days later. Plans are made for simple meals to be served in the hall. This makes it affordable.
 
That sounds like a big problem that needs looking into and correction.
 
I was the retreat chairman for the Men’s retreat through the 80’s and 90’s

When I made my first retreat back in 1978, we had 150 men on retreat.

This is after Vatican II, which had nothing to do with the decline.

Instead, the decline coincided with the decline in people attending Mass, especially as the sex abuse scandal rocked the Church. One case was by a member of the retreat team where the retreats were held.

Also, the cost for retreats increased greatly. It’s suppose to be a free will offering, but they did tell us how much the retreat costs and to leave more for those who don’t have enough to cover the cost. They never turn anyone away, but there are many who will not make a retreat for which they can’t pay.

In all, blaming Vatican II for all the ills in the Church merely shows an ignorance to what took place in the Church before Vatican II, but back then, it was kept out of public view. There’s more transparency in the Church today, but it’s not even close to being good enough.

Jim
 
Around these parts one has to get reservations in early for “sleep over” retreats, they sell out in a FLASH
 
They fill up fast at the Trappist Monastery, but they only have room for 12 people on retreat and it’s not a structured retreat.

The Passionists retreat center I use to go to, held 180 people on a week-end and it was a structured retreat.

Jim
 
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