Survey: Religious identity slips among U.S. Catholics

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CaseyDeAnn said:
Wow, that’s terrible. It’s as if the majority of Catholics miss the whole point (and benefit) of being Catholic.
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That’s what they’d like us to believe, isn’t it? But if you look at the numbers, you’ll see the truth: it’s only the majority of the 1442 (alleged) Catholics surveyed. They don’t tell us where these people are, or how they selected them for the survey (I know I wasn’t one of them, and you probably weren’t either.) They don’t provide us with a link to the questions asked, so we can examine the wording. It would be easy to obtain the results they want by focusing on college students at liberal/CINO schools and leftist dissident groups, or by wording the questions in the survey in such a way that multiple choice answers have limited and incomplete options. That’s why surveys and statistics are not sufficient evidence to prove any argument. But most of us don’t know that. We read the results and not the fine print; thus we’re convinced by them. That was the point behind my blog post (link on page 1 of this thread.) We can’t let ourselves be discouraged by misleading reports.
 
stewstew03 said:
The Catholic Church needs more evangelism…
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…and not just on doctrine! We need to rediscover our collective identity and history as a people. As the Holy Father (as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) wrote in The Spirit of the Liturgy:

“Sinai gives Israel, so to speak, its interior land without which the exterior one would be a cheerless prospect. Israel is constituted as a people through the covenant and the divine law it contains. It has received a common rule for righteous living. This and this alone is what makes the land a real gift. Sinai remains present in the Promised Land. When the reality of Sinai is lost, the Land, too, is inwardly lost, until finally the people are thrust into exile. Whenever Israel falls away from the right worship of God, when she turns away from God to the false gods (the powers and values of this world), her freedom, too, collapses. It is possible for her to live in her own land and yet still be as she was in Egypt.” (Ch. 1, pp. 19-20.)

We need to quit allowing our lives (and those of our children) to be formed and informed by the materialist values of a world that has renounced God. We need to reform Christendom, in our lives (set your own house in order first) and our institutions. We need to remember Sinai–not as some abstract concept, but as a reality as unchanging as the laws of physics (after all, they were designed by the same holy Mind and formed by the same Word Made Flesh.) The new Sinai of the New and Everlasting Covenant. And it’s incumbent on us. We need to be the reformers. It’s a grassroots prospect. If you hear anyone speaking nonsensically about the Faith, don’t be afraid to correct them! (Instructing the ignorant is one of the Works of Mercy.) Educate yourself about Catholic culture & what made the Middle Ages great! Remember where we came from–not so we can repeat the past, but so we can renew the present.

(I’ll shut up now, before I write a 40-page treatise instead of a post. :D)
 
How very sad. 😦 I don’t know for sure if we are living in the last days or not but I know that Jesus does prophesy that many will fall away in the last days. I do believe we have been living in the end times ever since Jesus’ ascension into Heaven. As for whether or not we are actually living in the days just before His return, I have no idea.
 
Swiss_Guy said:
Not the ones who revolt (look at the 1500s for more info). 😉
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If by that you were referring to the fathers of the Protestant rebellion, I fully agree! 😃 (We need to quit allowing ourselves and our children to be formed and informed by the Protestants, too, BTW! Most of the time they don’t know what they’re talking about…)
 
Wardog said:
Rather than place the total blame on the laity, how about the Church do some critical self reflection on why the message is being ignored? Or survey the laity on why they are not accepting 100% of the total message.
I doubt this will happen; the religious do not take any criticism well, and any internal dissent is squashed as it is perceived as a sign of weakness that cannot be discussed with the laity.
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So to translate what you are saying:

The Church should allow women to be priests, revoke its “no contraceptives” policy/ teachings, allow abortion on demand, allow gay marriage and also for priests to marry?

Is that it?

And anybody who disagrees with those positions are the REAL “dissenters” and have not “joined the 21st Century”, right?

Is that what you are saying? ⭕(:rolleyes:🤷
 
QuisUtDeus72 said:
If by that you were referring to the fathers of the Protestant rebellion, I fully agree! 😃 (We need to quit allowing ourselves and our children to be formed and informed by the Protestants, too, BTW! Most of the time they don’t know what they’re talking about…)
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Yep, I was. 😃

I agree. 😦 Protestants need to come back home (I don’t know if I should say that 'cause I guess I’m still Protestant for at least 2 more years, probably 4 :().
 
One can certainly remember the Reformation, and realize this is not the only time this has happened. Prior to that, there was a time when MOST of the Christian world was Arian. Then, of course, there was the east/west schism. But before that, there was a de facto schism among the Oriental Orthodox. There were the Nestorians, the Gnostics…on and on.

The poster who felt the shortfall was in catechesis, and I would agree with that. Shortly after, if not during, Vatican II, there was a huge wave of relativism that swept through the faithful, and unfortunately, many Church leaders were at least somewhat, if not entirely, in sympathy with it. There seemed at one time to be a celebrated but heretical “theologian” on every street corner. Because their message was almost always latitudinarian and relativistic, it infected many.

It may be noted, though, that their direct influence has largely dried up, found wanting. Their last bastion, unfortunately, seems to be in the “sort of” Catholic universities. But we often look in vain for the epochal teachers in the Church who, in the past, defied the cultural defilement, and taught the truth not only steadfastly but well. If, for instance, we look at old films of Bp. Sheen, he seems a bit “period”. But back then he was not, and, for his time taught exceedingly well. For the time being, we’re still not getting the right thing, in the right way, and at the right time.

But hope springs eternal. Orthodoxy really is gaining in the ranks of Churchmen. Of that, I have no doubt at all. Their influence will take awhile. In the meantime, the young in the Church in the U.S. are largely dependent on their own parents for proper catechesis.
 
At our parish the kids are taking vacation bible school from nondenoms and people wonder why Catholics don’t hold on to the faith …well duh!!!
 
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