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Catholic reception of sacraments on decline

07 Jun 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The body of Christ, which we celebrate this Corpus Christi Sunday, is growing worldwide—on track to reach 1.64 billion by 2050 according to a major new study. But not all bodes well as the church faces major demographic and social shifts. Worldwide, there has only been a 7 percent growth in parishes. And the overall rate per 1,000 Catholics receiving the sacraments “is in uninterrupted decline worldwide. It’s not keeping up with population growth,” said Mark Gray, senior research associate for CARA and a co-author of the report. The reasons vary from a lack of interest in the global West to a lack of access to parishes and priests in developing countries to simple demographics Homily hint: The sacraments are at the heart of the life and vitality of the church. An active program of religious education that finds new ways of communicating their central role to the next generation of Catholics is central to the health and well-being of the worldwide body of Christ. For more on the results of the study, see: More Catholics, fewer receiving sacraments: A new report maps a changing church; Global Catholicism

sacraments global catholicism

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Strong institutions keep the richness of Catholic tradition

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

Unity, not uniformity. We live in a time of choice. We have many choices, and people are likely to make different choices at different times regarding religion and their Catholicism. Some call this cafeteria Catholicism: Give me a little more social justice, a little less sacrament of Reconciliation, and lay off that bit on Mary, please. We are now realizing that this way of doing things is simply how people go on constructing their religious meanings and how they have done so all along. Catholics of different ages, genders, education, ethnic backgrounds, occupations, and all sorts of other forms of social differentiation emphasize aspects of the tradition in different ways. Yet all are Catholic. Rather than a new phenomenon, it is something quite ancient, quite typical. For much of our history, such meanings were constructed at a group level, at the level of families, towns, and nationalities. Now they are constructed more at the level of the person, and that person might even say, if asked, that he or she rejects certain aspects of the Catholic tradition. But they give this answer really because he or she was asked. Without being asked, one tends to focus on what engages and gives life rather than a critique of what is weak or uninspiring. The key is that the tradition and the local church and Catholic institutions be robust and varied enough so that all the elements that make up the richness of the Catholic tradition, all the elements that might be creatively understood and assimilated, are thriving and present. The key is to create strong institutions and strongly networked institutions. © 2008, Bryan Froehle

Authors Bryan Froehle

choices cafeteria catholicism tradition

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Parishes: Develop a hybrid model

Short essays about observed trends in Roman Catholic life - Pastoral trends

The years since the close of the Second Vatican Council have been conflicted and somewhat messy, in contrast to the era of Tridentine Catholicism. However, the Second Vatican Council did not so much destroy Tridentine Catholicism as recognize its passing—and that it had been essentially on life support for many years. Tridentine Catholicism, resting on cultural underpinnings that had long since dissolved, collapsed unceremoniously, and no amount of exertion can recreate it nor its social foundations. Catholicism has moved from a one-size-fits-all model to a plurality of models fit for distinct groups, particular communities, and individual commitments. Think now of thriving parishes. Parish life in various countries will continue to be successful to the extent to which gospel values and the sacramental vision of Catholicism are successfully woven into the needs, aspirations, and social and cultural realities of the communities they serve, whether in terms of the smallest units of Catholic life to the largest. The next several decades will see many more closings and consolidations of parishes in Europe, North America, and Australia, given fewer priests and the changing nature of Catholic parish life in these cultural areas. At the same time, an already pastorally diverse third world Catholicism will become even more diverse. There is simply no “one” right way, no “one” model that a “truly Catholic” or “successful” Catholic parish follows. Instead, the leadership and members of a faith community have to understand themselves and develop their own hybrid model.

Authors Bryan Froehle

second vatican council tridentine catholicism

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