The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church

The decline of the Catholic Clergy in the U.S.A.

Priests

In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States. In 2002, the number was 450.

In 1965, only 1% of U.S. parishes were without a priest. In 2002 this number is 15%.

Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700. 
Two-thirds of the 600 seminaries that were operating in 1965 have now closed.

Religious Orders.

In 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuit priests. In 2000, the figure was 389.

With the Christian Brothers, the situation is even more dire. Their number has now shrunk by two-thirds. In 1965, there were 912 seminarians in the Christian Brothers. In 2000, there were only 7.

The number of young men studying to become Franciscan and Redemptorist priests fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.

The decline of the Catholic Laity in the U.S.A.

Catholic schools.

Catholic Marriage.

Attendance at Mass.

Indicative beliefs

"No other major faith in the U.S. has experienced greater net losses over the last few decades
as a result of changes in religious affiliation than the Catholic Church,"

"roughly one-third of those who were raised Catholic have left the church,
and approximately one-in-ten American adults are former Catholics."

• Only 64% of practicing Catholics said they agreed that the fullness of God’s truth is found in the Catholic Church. 
• Only 66% agreed that "the communion bread and wine at Mass" truly become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. 
• 61% agreed that women should be allowed to become Catholic priests. 
• About 50% agreed that abortion should be legal, that premarital sex “with someone you really care about” is not a sin and that same-sex marriage should be legal.
• 70% disagreed with the idea that using a condom to prevent pregnancy is a serious sin.

"What is clear, however, is that current students... are also leaving the Catholic Church. Among current students who say they were Catholic at some point during their studies, four percent report that they are no longer Catholic. The percent of Catholic students leaving the Church over the course of a Catholic college education (usually four years) may actually be larger than this, because the current students who responded to the survey are of different ages, and most of them still have one or more years of study before they graduate."

The decline of the Catholic Church in Latin America

"The number of Brazilians who declare themselves Catholics has diminished rapidly, on an average of 1% a year.
In 1991 Catholic Brazilians were nearly 83%, today and according to new studies, they are barely 67%. We wonder with anxiety: how long will Brazil remain a Catholic country? 

In conformity with this situation, it has been found that in Brazil there are two Protestant pastors for each Catholic priest, and the majority from the Pentecostal Churches. Many indications show that the same is true for almost all of Latin America and here too we wonder: how long will Latin America remain a Catholic continent?"

Mexico still Catholic, but number of atheists on the rise

Mexicans “are increasingly more involved in the new religious movements that are gaining ground in the ambit of the faith, mainly in rural zones, poor urban areas and indigenous communities,” the report indicates. “These faithful are characterized by two things: high rates of illiteracy and low income.”

A recent study by the Mexican Institute for Christian Social Doctrine asserted that among Catholics, “there is really no commitment to the faith they preach” and most have become nominal believers who attend baptisms and marriage but not Sunday Mass.

The Decline of the Catholic Church in Europe

In1980 the French Church had about 35,000 priests. In 2000 this had declined to 19,000.

In 1989 the German Church had 297 priestly ordinations. In 2002 it had 131.
In 1989 the German Church had 1,667 seminarians. In 2002 it had 1,035.

The mother of a friend of mine, an opera singer in Lille, died yesterday. What makes me angry, is the unedifying circus act put on by the modernists in their supposed concern to give "pastoral care" to the sick and especially the dying.

When my friend's mother entered the hospital, it was not easy to find the chaplain. Once the chaplain was finally found, the question arose: "what should he 'do' to his mom?" He was told that as the old lady hadn't received Holy Communion for a couple of years the chaplain didn't want to give it her now, because if he gave her the viaticum, she might mistake it for Extreme Unction. Moreover as, since the liturgical "reformation" Extreme Unction had been abolished, the best thing to do would be to simply recite the Lord's prayer.

I mailed a traditionalist priest who used to serve in Lille. He told me that he didn't do so anymore, but immediatly spoke by phone to another traditionalist priest from Lille. This second priest was prepared to go at the hospital; to confess the old lady, to communicate her and to give her Extreme Unction. In the meanwhile, the traditional priests said that the family should ask the hospital's chaplain to give her at least an absolution, in case she died before she could receive the traditional last rites.

It was impossible to find, the chaplain yesterday morning, because he had a mass to celebrate outside the hospital. Eventually he was contacted and suggested that he send a layman to give the old lady absolution and the anointing of the sick, in order to prevent the traditionalist from coming. I told my friend that a layman is not allowed to perform these sacraments, and that they should therefore ask the traditionalist priest to go to the hospital. Faced with this dilema my friend didn't know what to do. He remembered that it had been told them that whosoever doesn't accept Vatican II is backward. So he stalled and waited for a "miracle" to happen. Inevitably, the old lady died yesterday, without receiving the last sacraments. [A lay correspondent (27th Oct 2008)]

The decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland

A survey conducted in 2007 for the Iona Institute, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Evangelical Alliance of Northern Ireland uncovered a lack of religious knowledge among both Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. It found that Catholics in Northern Ireland show the same level of religious knowledge as those in the south. Overall, only 42% of the poll respondents (Catholic and Protestant) knew that there are four Gospels, and just 54% could name the persons of the Trinity. The survey uncovered a striking decline in religious knowledge among younger respondents. Catholics scored substantially higher results, however, only 21% of those aged 16- 24 knew the number of the Gospels, and only 33% could identify the persons of the Trinity. This indicates that the Christian faith is becoming less meaningful to those under twenty-five years of age and the idea that Christianity is being transmitted through the culture from one generation to the next is invalid.

Edinburgh, Jun. 12, 2006 (CNA) - 

The Cardinal Archbishop of Edinburgh has announced the need to close parishes in light of a significant priest shortage and declining church attendance. "The fact remains: we are not producing enough home-grown Scottish priests. That is the root of the problem,” he said. The number of active priests in the Edinburgh diocese is expected to fall from 63 to 34 in 10 years. The average age of priests in Scotland is above 60, and there are very few new vocations.

Furthermore, religious practice has dropped. The number of practicing Catholics is a little more than 200,000; down 20 percent since the mid-1990s. In the last decade, the number of Catholic couples in Edinburgh baptizing their children has also dropped, from 1,910 to 1,075. 

The decline of the Catholic Church in England and Wales

According to the Right Rev. Ambrose Griffiths, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, the situation is dire.

"In our diocese, church attendance has been going down 
on a straight-line graph for the last 25 years." 

The figures for marriages and baptisms are not simply alarming, but disastrous. In 1944 there were 30,946 marriages, by 1964 the figure had risen to 45,592: but by 2003 it  had plunged to 11,013, little more than one third of the figure for 1944. The figures for baptisms for the same years are 71,604 (1944), 137,673 (1964), and 56,180  (2003). Nor can it be presumed that even half the children who are baptized will be practicing their faith by the time they reach their teens. An examination of the figures for a typical diocese indicates that less than half the children who are baptized are confirmed, and a report in The Universe as long ago as 1990 gave an estimate of only 11% of young Catholics practicing their faith when they leave high school. 
 

• Mass attendance has slumped by 40 per cent, 
• Baptisms by 50 per cent, 
• Marriages by 60 per cent,
• Confirmations by 60 per cent,
• Convertions fell by 55 per cent 
• First Communions by nearly 40 per cent.

"The Church in Britain is suffering from a terminal decline in membership, irregular commitment among the remnant, and, in the wake of persistent child abuse scandals,
a leadership of bishops and priests that has toppled from its pedestal with a mighty crash."

"It is clear that if the Catholic Church in Britain is to successfully communicate its messages and persuade an increasingly secular and cynical audience it must change its approach. Reactionary, defensive tactics have failed. The Church needs to become more of a proactive and positive force for building community in fragmented, 21st-century British society."