There are many theories as to why declines like these have occurred over the last 20 years. Some blame the Church's failure to adequately expose and confront the priest sex scandal. Others suggest this erosion of Catholic life stems from the failure of individual parishes to create communities of faith for their parishioners.
I'm sure these theories have a certain amount of credibility but I think the main reason for such a stark downward spiral within the Archdiocese is due to that dirty little word many religious pundits often decry: secularism. While there are many forms of secularism, this blog entry looks at three in particular that in my humble opinion have had the biggest negative impact on the Church's efforts to increase the faith.
For many Catholics, the faith is all fine and good until any sacrifice gets in way of doing what THEY want to do. This type of secularism can start off as a benign spiritual laziness that slowly creeps in. Perhaps going to Church every week is too much of a bother. Maybe people simply don't have the time with busy work schedules and / or their children's sports leagues. It's easy to put God on the back burner even if you don't mean to shut him out of your life.
In its more malignant form, this type of secularism is deliberate and sees people choosing to turn their backs on parish life and certain moral values. Maybe they'd rather sleep in on Sundays instead of committing to weekly Mass. During my time on Catholic Match, I saw far too many women ignore the Church's teachings on premarital sex. I'm sure many justify this by saying, "Those are old fashioned values that no one practices anymore." For these Catholics, it's all about forgoing sacrifice to embrace fun.
Another prong of secularism can be seen in people who have grievances against organized religion. While still spiritual they have serious doubts about the Church's structure, leaders and rules (sometimes with good reason) and prefer to go it alone. They might still identify as Catholic but it's more likely they prefer the category of "recovering Catholic." These people feel you don't need so many moral tenets to get into heaven just as long as you're a good person because a loving and merciful God won't be so judgmental. Their criticism of organized religion might extend beyond the Catholic Church since so many faiths have brought out the worst in humanity at times.
A third prong of secularism that's seriously harming the Church is the fact that more and more people just don't believe in God like they used to. Modern times have instilled within us a certain amount of skepticism which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Our belief in the scientific method has taken illness out of the hands of witch doctors and into hospitals. There are people who have objectively looked at God but question how a being so loving and merciful could allow so much senseless death and destruction to take place in the world. They look for signs of consistency in the Almighty only to see a God who calls us friends in one part of the Bible but then treats us like mere playthings in other parts of the Bible. Even my mother who is a life-long Catholic now wonders if there's any sense to life at all. I guess she's following in the footsteps of Mother Teresa who also had doubts about God after witnessing so much human suffering during her long ministry to the poor.
Astronomy has certainly humbled humanity's place in the vast universe and for some, our apparent insignificance has caused doubts that there's a higher power behind it all. Others question the accuracy of texts written over 2,000 years ago. In many circles, God "exists" only to be mocked. (He even has his own Facebook page.)
During my time at St. Mary's in Beverly our energetic young pastor once gave a sermon on how to go about evangelizing others. He said if we encountered skepticism, we should pull from our quiver certain relevant Bible passages to convince disbelievers of the Truth. He went on to list specific example and while he was very well-intention, I think this approach often falls on deaf ears. It's no longer the Middle Ages and the vast majority of people are not going to blindly follow simply because the Church says so. I don't envy Cardinal O'Malley's successor. He will likely see more parishes and Catholic schools close in the next few years because for an increasing number of people God is a hard sell.
