Is Catholicism becoming rarer?

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Priest are becoming rarer, it seems to me.
In the old days, I heard, there were 5 priest to a parish -
They had their own cooks too.
Everything ran like clockwork.
Not so now.
 
SammyRose said:
It seems that way, but who knows maybe God will send a Saint and revive the Church here in the west.
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True, but keep in mind each Catholic was sent here to be a saint. Don’t think of a potential saint only as some other person, though every other person was also sent to be a saint as well. You and I, as well.
 
RCIAGraduate said:
Will Catholics, specifically practicing, orthodox and devout Catholics (pardon if that sounds offensive) become more rare in the Western World and other First World countries and nations within the coming decades? Perhaps not extinct but more difficult to find?
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In short, yes. If you look at the numbers of those leaving the faith vs. being received, the number of children being born becoming more scarce, and the number of Catholics growing older and dying, the Church will shrink a lot unless something is done.

I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but it has shifted in smaller numbers very very drastically over only the past 10 years. At that pace, it’ll be very small.
 
AndrewAxland said:
My money is on Reinhard Marx. He’s quite popular among those cardinals who were appointed by Pope Francis, who will soon make up the majority of the ones who are young enough to vote. I highly doubt that many of them have the stomach for someone like Sarah or any of the other conservative cardinals from Africa.
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That would be terrible. Cdl. Marx has been supporting horrible things.
 
In the US, not only is Catholicism declining, but so is Protestantism. Huge numbers of mainline denominational churches have closed; those that remain have very few young people. There are a few mega churches, but keep in mind dozens of small churches closed to make this one big church possible. But the mega churches near me seem to have very, very little doctrine of any kind.

Some formerly reliable evangelical churches, such as Baptists, are sliding towards the mainline on issues like abortion and same sex marriage.

Some people go to non denominationals for the weight loss class, others for the addictions support group, still others because they like the music, crafts, or the family activities. They remind me of the YMCA, with a religious service added in. Listen to Joel Osteen for a half hour: There is nothing anyone would disagree with, but also hardly anything specifically Christian. The mega churches near me seem to be community centers, so for most of their adherents are not really contact with Protestantism.

I
 
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Seagull said:
Priest are becoming rarer, it seems to me.

In the old days, I heard, there were 5 priest to a parish -

They had their own cooks too.

Everything ran like clockwork.

Not so now.
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How do you think this happened?
 
gcshapero said:
That would be terrible. Cdl. Marx has been supporting horrible things.
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To me, it seems that he is the person who best embodies the direction in which Pope Francis would like to see the Church go in the future, and has become the most visible spokesman for Francis’s vision.

Aside from a few malcontents like Burke & Co., not many of the other cardinals seem to pine for the days of Pope Benedict, especially those who were appointed by Pope Francis. No do many of the faithful.

After the next consistory, a firm majority of voting-age cardinals will have been appointed by Pope Francis, practically ensuring that whoever is elected will carry on with his reforms, whether that means Marx himself or someone who largely shares his views. Someone like Cardinal Sarah has no chance of getting elected.
 
gcshapero said:
How would you like to see the Church proceed?
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I’m not voting, so it’s immaterial. I do keep up with Church internal politics, though, enough to vaguely identify future trends, and from what I read and see, those are in keeping with Pope Francis’s vision. I don’t detect much in the way of nostalgia for the days of Pope Benedict. From a PR point of view, they were an unmitigated disaster.
 
Jesus Christ watches over His Bride, the Catholic Church. The media in the West has become more anti-Christian and it took decades of work on their part to convince too many people that doing things the wrong way is OK.
 
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