Did the Church survive two thousand years because it remained consistent and true to Christ or because it acquisced to cultural demands and incorporated novelty when so demanded?]/QUOTE]That question betrays a tremendous amount of ignorance of Church history; the answer is that it is both/and, not either/or. Church history is replete with cultural additions and changes.
Ockham;5280105:
Since the Novus Ordo burst onto the scene and the subsequent experimenation with it, Sunday Mass attendence has dropped considerably. Sure there are individual parishes with strong numbers but overall our numbers are down dramatically. Europe is even worse off than North America and with the large Muslim immigration, Christianity will soon be insignificant there.
However, this is the same tired old post hoc, ergo propter hoc argument that keeps being made, and it ignores the fact that Mass attendance was already dropping before Vatican 2 even occured, and the rate of change did very much at all after v
atican 2; in other words, we continued the slow leakage. If the Change to the Of was the source, then the statistics would show a sudden drop off after it was introduced, or at least an accelleration of the rate; but neither occured. A much more cogent arguem3nt can be made that the cause of so many leaving has nothign to do with the OF, or even Vatican 2, but has to do with the Pill, and the sexual promiscuity it engendered, and the backlash that came with the introduction of Humanae Vitae. That backlash, that outright dismissal of a papal encyclical has ahd more to do with disobedience in the Church than any part of the OF or its entirety.
How do we weather the storms of secularism, scandal, and a loss of faith our modern society is designed for? If people don’t find spiritual fulfillment with the liturgy then they lose the motivation for getting up early on Sunday morning to attend Mass. Our dual income society makes Mass attendance more of a commitment with most families being time poor. The numbers indicate the Novus Ordo isn’t holding us together and the flock is being diminished. What does Christ say happens to those who lose their faith?
To begin with, you; have a Pollyanna attitude about spiritual fulfillment pre-Vatican 2; there is nothing that distinctly shows that there was any change in spiritual fulfillment or lack thereof other than the repeated statements by those who were pre-Vatican 2 that they so soundly appreciated the change to the vernacular. Oh, and by the way, that is the group who has the highest rate of attendance still, all at the OF. By any logic, one would expect that group to have the greatest fall-oof, but they actaully have the higest rate of attendance.
As faithful Catholics we have a duty to point out liturgical abuses for the sake of the Church and the souls of many. Of course some people may be too quick to make this accusation, but I’d rather have overly enthusiastic orthodox liturgists in the pews than no one at all. If you take something seriously then you’ll make it a priority in your life. This life is supposed to be about preparing for the next, namely the location. Liturgical abuses lead to diminished spiritual fulfillment which leads to lower attendance/faith and death.
And I would rather have people who go to Mass to worship Christ, than a pew full of liturgical police who are more interested in trying to catch the priest at some issue than they are to join in the sacrificial offering of Christ to the Father, and to fulfill Christ’s command: take and eat.
Dissatisfaction with evangelical worship was one of the reasons I returned to the Catholic Church.