\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2005 there were approximately 66 million Catholics in our country. During the rating period from 1995 to 2005, there was a 19-percent increase, which is considerably more than the 13-percent increase in the general population. While that would appear to speak well of us, the Hispanic population in our country grew by 57 percent. As a large percentage of the Hispanic population would count themselves as being Catholic, that would seem an explanation for our 19-percent increase. The Hispanic growth presents both a great blessing and a very real challenge to our Church.
\nOur own diocese is working hard to meet that challenge, and Spanish classes will be offered to diocesan employees this spring. It will be interesting to see if my “golden age” mind is capable of absorbing some fundamentals of the Spanish language.
\nWe are all aware that numbers can be deceptive. Of those 66 million Catholics in our country, only 3 out of 10 attend church regularly. Four decades ago, 7 out of 10 Catholics attended Mass. How can we begin to explain that tragic change?
\nThe confusion in religious education is often mentioned as one of the culprits. I have to agree with that. From approximately 1965 to 1985, religious education had little spine or substance.
\nHaving taught religion as a high school teacher during most of those years, I can personally attest to the poor quality of religious textbooks. Students were quick to discern that the material was unworthy. Now we deal with Catholic adults who have little understanding of their faith. Ignorance breeds boredom, contempt and even hostility.
\nAnother player in the game that resulted in the spiritual ennui of Catholics was the style of liturgy. In well-meaning attempts to make liturgy “relevant,” the beauty of the Mass was often “dumbed down. ” I remember with sadness and revulsion the clown Masses of the past, complete with balloons.
\nThe music, which accompanied the liturgy, seemed not to be able to find a dignified avenue to segue from Latin to the vernacular. We borrowed heavily from Protestant hymnbooks, and the results were not always edifying or theologically correct. Priests occasionally drifted from their position as “alter Christus” to some kind of entertainer or cheerleader.
\nWhile I genuinely love the new order of the Mass and the use of the vernacular, somewhere along the line we compromised on the mystery, dignity, reverence and solemnity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the center and zenith of our worship as Catholics.
\nCertainly the decline in the number of priests has also a strong influence upon the health of the Church. There was an 18-percent decrease in the number of active diocesan priests from 1995 to 2005. They are now only slightly more than 18,000 active diocesan priests in our country, 53 within our own diocese. The vocations crisis was so severe that in 2005, 48 dioceses had no ordinations, and only three had 10 or more.
\nFortunately with our own diocese we are now experiencing a considerable growth in the number of young men entering the seminary, which is a very positive sign.
\nAll is not gloom and doom. What I see is a real need for solid religious education, uplifting and prayerful liturgy, joy and enthusiasm for the faith with which God has blessed us. I see exciting things happening within our Church: parishes filled with activity and the presence of the Holy Spirit; our young priests being ordained with a real love for Christ and the Church they serve; an influx of priests from other countries who are exceptionally well educated, humble and joyful; deacons, religious and parish and diocesan staffs who are not only capable but filled with the Spirit. We have much to celebrate, proclaim and promote.
\n.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-07-10 19:41:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansas-catholic.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}