I recently heard from a friend who works in the vocations office for the archdiocese of Boston.  Boston being of course the center of the clergy scandal and possibly the capital of the eastern liberal establishment.  They are trying cope with an influx of new priestly vocations, and are looking for housing for the many young men discerning a vocation.  This is likely due to the cleansing that has taken place, and now a young man can feel he is in the company of other faithful, God-fearing servants when he enters a seminary.  Other dioceses that have strong leadership from their bishops (as does Boston under Cardinal Mahoney) are seeing increases in vocations.  Our faith flourishes in orthodox environments.

Show me a faith that is worth dying for!

“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin? Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard round the world?” —Ronald Reagan (1964)

We are lucky to have Cardinal Sean O'Malley in the Archdiocese of Boston.  Unfortunately, he is still surounded by administrative religious and lay that believe in a twisted view of the "spirit of Vatican II".  There is an increasing amount of orthodox/conservative catholics that want to see Vatican II implemented correctly in Boston.  But, the numbers are not larger or loud enough.  The healthiest and strongest parishes seem to be the ones who take the Real Presence and all the sacraments seriously with out a liberal agenda.

Concerning Cardinal O'Malley:  He would probably like to clean house, but to take away the job of one heretic, let alone the lot of them, would probably only lead to multiple lawsuits; the lawyerly class would argue that it is discrimination based on religion - regardless of the fact that it is the Church that is the erstwhile employer.  Civil rights trump all others!  Especially where the Catholic Church is involved.

Concerning the article:  Perhaps when we start being Catholics (that happen to be in America) rather than American Catholics, some sanity will return.  Baptists may be Southern, or First, or Reformed, or whatever, but how many run around saying they are "American Baptists"?  And yet, the SBC is an American born institution.  Let's be Catholic first, then Americans.

The Church cannot, and should not, be absorbed by the society. We must have the steadfastness and courage to defend, and promote, the law of God regardless of the prohibitions of such by secular authorities.  What do we fear?  Jail?  Loss of income?  Persecution?  Consider Sts. Perpetua and Felicity - death in the coliseum - would you take jail over that?  For the love of our God?

I Pray That I Would; Jesus give me the strength. 

I don't think the health of the Church in the US can be measured by how many people are coming in or going out, nor by where the Church ranks among other various religous groups in this predominantly protestant country.

It is measured by how faithful the Church is in preaching, teaching, and sanctifying the world. If that is not the focus of the bishops, then it is going in the wrong direction, regardless of how many people are coming in, how much money is being brought in, and how much it is in synch with the opinions of this country's citizens.

I would be surprised if many Catholics in the US knew that Vatican II called every single Christian to be a saint. If they have heard this, it has likely not been in the context of a challenge to repent of our sins and to follow Christ perfectly, but in the context of "God loves each of us and so we are are all saints" to affirm us in our okayness. That's the dangerous way of presenting "the universal call to holiness" that I have seen.

But I am optimistic. It's hard not to be at Easter!

Thanks for this very refreshing article. It's so nice to hear every now and again a clear and simple invitation to sainthood since it is what we're here for and what the Church is all about. Sometimes it seems rather, as you say, that the point of everything is about getting the church parking lot re-surfaced. As I read the article, one of Padre Pio's funnier quips came to mind. A devoted follower approached him one day and exclaimed, "Father! I want to be a saint!" and he responded, "Very well my child, but just so you know, it's a dog's life."

Something else I would say about the benefits of occupying ourselves with holiness: it's the one thing we can share with all our other Christian brothers and sisters. Instead of investing so much time in often inconclusive discussions about which is the right church and who is more in line with Christ's teachings and what do the Gospels really say about the primacy of Peter and the Eucharist--well, one thing in the Gospels is wholly unequivocal: that Jesus invites us all to perfection, to holiness and to the sanctification of our lives. Anyone who calls himself a Christian is obliged to Christ if not to Peter--if I can put it that way. There are fundamental teachings which all Christians can embrace: the Beatitudes and all the other instruction which Jesus gives in Luke 6:2o-49, and Matt. 5,6,7. So indeed, by working on our own sanctity in a decided manner, we could engage other Christians we know to look at the reality of this together with us because I think they could agree that it is the most important issue. So perhaps for a mile or two we'd find ourselves sharing the same road and traveling in the same direction.

But now another funny thing came to mind just as I was about to end here--it seems an appropriate way to conclude this contribution. Pope John Paul II had returned to his apartment very haggard-looking I suppose, because it occasioned from one of the house-keeping nuns a very worried, "I'm so concerned about Your Holiness!" and Pope John Paul retorted, "I too am very concerned about my holiness."

Happy Easter to all!

The first I heard about this particular study was at a diocesan function, where staffers were quick to dismiss it, citing CARA's response to it (http://cara.georgetown.edu/rel022808.pdf). Sadly, I am in a diocese where we have a good bishop, but also have a situation such as "hickey" describes above. I suppose their reaction to this study is a reflection of that.

Ave Maria!

I am happy to hear that there are signs of life in Boston. I have cousins there who have left the faith in total disgust; their faith could not stomach the scandal.

A Catholic's goal is to be HOLY! To be a saint. Who was it that said that the greatest tragedy is not to be a saint? This is never ever mentioned.

Our priests speak about themselves. Father went on and on and on about immigration at the Easter vigil and some other sad topics before my ears went numb. I do not believe he mentioned Our Lord or the Resurrection. But at the end Father said, "I can tell it is a good liturgy when I am having fun and I had fun."

 The most 'teaching' we ever get is that if you show up to Mass, er liturgy, sometimes then you have it made and you are already wonderful and holy so you can sing about yourself. The protestant that is coming to do our annual parish 'mission' will probably second that.

Naturally we have a priest shortage in this 'liberal' diocese. We have no Latin Mass in it; any new priests we have are generally foreigners. We are busy empowering the laity which seems to be almost entirely composed of aging women.

When we discover that there is no grace in liberalism and that only the full TRUTHs of the faith will touch and keep souls on the path to holiness, then the diocese can reverse its withering trend.

And as for laity 'demanding' change--good luck with that. I have found no recourse at all.  My answer is that I am hoping to move out of this diocese because I do not want to spend the rest of my life enduring Mass and the current novelities. We hope to move to a faithful diocese later this year; I just hope it is not too late for my children.

What a timely article! I just returned from visiting family for Easter. The topic of Catholics leaving the Church for other churches was something we discussed last night.

I come from a very large parish in a moderately liberal diocese ... Des Moines, Iowa. (We are currently without a bishop, due to health reasons, so please pray for us to receive a defender of the faith and someone who is orthodox.) Right across the street from our church is another very large evangelical church which is attracting more and more people every day. The main reason people are going to this new church (about 10,000 members) is the pastor. He is a very good speaker and people leave there feeling "they got something out of church". I know many people become "former Catholics" as they leave our parish and go across the street to this dynamic church. (As a side note, if the pastor were ever to leave that church, I would expect over half of their members would leave, too.)

The gut reaction to deal with this situation would be for our church to start offering similar programs that they do (various kids programs, a cafe, coffee bar, and much more) and try to make our worship services similar. But I don't think this is the answer. The answer is simple and won't cost a penny. The answer is ...  the homily.

For probably 90% of Catholics in the pews on any Sunday, that one hour of mass is the only time they spend on their "religious education." I know that many parishes offer adult religous ed, but in the vast majority of places, the attendance is a very small percentage of the adult membership in the parish. So, the time to reach people is during the homily.

What I'm talking about is priests taking 3-5 minutes of homily time to discuss some apologetic topic or something along the lines of "Why Do Catholics Do That". Specifically, the priest could explain why we genuflect or bow or why we believe that faith alone does not save or why we allow fish to be eaten on Fridays in Lent. The topics are endless and could be quite deep, in an of themselves. But the nice thing is, the priest would not have to go into great depth on any of it. Just enough to get people in the pews thinking, "OK, now it makes sense" or "I never knew that" or something like that. Then people would start looking forward to hearing the weekly "adult religious ed" tidbit. Then people would be more inclined to search for more information on their own or attend formal adult religious ed courses. Then people would be willing to stand up for their faith, because they would start understanding it better.  Then we would not lose people to other churches that appeal purely to emotions and "spirit." People would have enough knoweldge to at least make a much more informed decision on their faith.

In the end, I see a lot of light bulbs going off in the pews every Sunday. People will hunger for more of this "spiritual feeding" and will take their passion for Christ beyond the church and into the home and workplace. I would not be suprised that, by just doing this one simple thing, the number of Catholics in the US would begin to grow.

I had a hard time finishing this column because I feel so strongly about this issue.  I have almost left the Church more than once. The reasons?  Hypocritcal, judgemental, mean people and lukewarm devotion to the Magesterium.  Regarding the people, I changed parishes.    As far as lukewarm devotion...  That was harder.  I'm still struggling.  I have realized that the Church is the infallible source of truth, but the people are all struggling sinners like me.  I can't hold others to a standard I can't keep myself.  It's so important for the clergy to at least proclaim the truth, though.  Personally, I think that contraception and the absence of marital chasitity in the Church in the US are the most fundamental issues we have.

"I know the Lord won't give me more than I can handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much." ~Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

The comment by tspower was right on target.  Evangelicals are attracting members primarily because they have developed a very interesting and compelling story about eschatology - the End Times.  You are probably aware of The Rapture.  This story of the Last Days is propagated in fiction and non-fiction books by about a dozen talented Evangelical writers (who have made a lot of money selling their books).  The story is interesting, believable, and very reassuring to the listeners. They are going to be whisked away into Heavan just before all hell breaks loose on earth. 

There is an irony to all of this because the rapture concept - inclduing using the term Rapture to describe it - was first authored by a Jesuit priest in South America circa 1850.  The Papacy condemned his writing, but the Protestants in England picked it up and brought it to the USA.

The Evangelicals have also done considerable scholarly research into OT and NT themes that tend to explain why we do this or that, and to connect various teachings of the Bible that did not previously seem to be connected.

Most of all, and the reason the Catholics are crossing the street to hear that Evangelical minister, is that their treatment of scripture is very, very interesting - and reassuring.

Evangelical theology is very ordinary, and their ritual and worship is virtually non-existent - at least in our terms and in terms of Judaism.  The primary difference between their theology and ours has to do with revelation.  They believe that new revelation is happening all the time - progressive revelation.  We believe that revelation ended with Christ, but that our comprehension of that revelation is progressive (as the Holy Spirit makes it known to us).

Evangelicals realize that their membership is triggered by that which is interesting (not their theology), and they are apprehensive in that there is a risk to constantly developing interesting stories and connections. At some point there is a temptation to exaggerate or fabricate in the name of interest.

I am blessed since I live in a town in the Midwest where four parishes combined into two parishes but kept their own churches open.  Daily Mass is available every day of the week because the Carmelite priests believe it is their duty to offer Mass every day for the people. Because my husband is retired military, we are members of the military post parish.  Our women's group offers two bible studies a year and two retreats, Advent and Lent, plus monthly programs on the Catholic Church. We are very careful to be in line with the Magisterium.  Since many of the women are only here for a year, they tell us they have learned more about the Catholic Faith than even in Catholic Schools as children.  They are the generations that were not catechized.  We even have Natural Family Planning classes which many are embracing.  It is time for us to teach the TRUE Faith which people are starving for.  To do this we must Pray, pray pray.   Our nation needs to turn back to God.