But if it’s two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, etc., you’re well past the entire country in our lifetimes. Exponential growth is the way to go.
But the Lord’s standard is different…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? The encouraging thing about the current moment is that the faith is alive and well…not in the majority, among whom desiccated branches continue to break off. But there is still fruit where the branches are connected to the vine.
This plot says a lot. Helping those who enter develop into mature Christians is super important, but it matters more in many ways to stop the mass exodus of kids leaving the Church when they turn 18 (or before).
i think this is a two birds, one stone kind of issue. Kids are leaving the Church in large part because their parents don't actually practice the faith. There's some exceptions to that rule, but that is the rule for kids leaving the Church: most Catholics do not go to Church on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, which means they aren't setting a good example for their children. Most Catholics who go to Mass reject Church teaching on contraception, homosexuality, and/or abortion. The overwhelming majority of Catholics do not pray daily as a family. I mean, the Israelites left Egypt in part because they did not live or worship like Egyptians.
Forming adult Catholics in the need for these practices is something that can be done for both current and new Catholics. And there are a lot of ways to do it: homilies are the most obvious (and probably also the most powerful), but doing devotions as a parish in addition to the Mass, regularly and routinely, is a good way to *do* "this is important" in addition to saying it. Providing resources (pamphlets and prayer cards and such) offers both catechesis and the practical methods, and these can simply be made available without fanfare. At the very least, homilies on what living a Catholic life is supposed to be like will at least make clear to children that their parents aren't doing that, and that they are missing out on the Catholic Faith, rather than the Catholic Faith being lacking.
This is a consoling narrative in the grand scheme of things, but on the other side of the coin are the millions of baptized Catholics that have no idea what faith is, and rarely, if ever, step in a church. That group needs catechesis, mystagogia, and insertion into a Christian community as much recent converts.
I think adult classes are good things and important, but they also will only help those willing to devote an hour or two a week to those classes, which probably doesn't describe the un-churched, and they often take a lot of time and resources to organize and maintain. The little, low-resource things that address the people who do show to Mass once a month or more, can have an outsized impact, and I think they are generally neglected.
I am glad I am young, and I thank God that I live in days like this. Ten or twenty years ago it was easy to be a Christian! It was easy to be a priest! It was easy to be a religious! The very air we breathed was Christian. The whole atmosphere of social life was Christian. One just had to stand up and found it…
Today we declare ourselves…and so we’re developing strong souls today.
-almost-Blessed Fulton Sheen, at the ripe age of 77
By doing nothing. The moment we try to institutionalize anything, is the moment it will lose its authenticity. We welcome them, we encourage them, and we pray for them. What happens beyond that should be the same formation and outreach everyone else receives.
Any chance the Pillar could do a report on Mass attendance numbers from 2016-2026? That seems like it would give important context to the conversion boom vs. numbers of people leaving. If those leaving have already left, as it were, maybe Mass attendance numbers are up?
My 15 year old stepdaughter came into the Church this Easter, and my 40 something husband seems likely to be next, praise God. Please pray for him!
Done 🙏
1,000,000 coverts per years sounds like a nice goal. Even at that rate, it would still take another 250 years or so to convert the whole country.
But if it’s two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, etc., you’re well past the entire country in our lifetimes. Exponential growth is the way to go.
But the Lord’s standard is different…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? The encouraging thing about the current moment is that the faith is alive and well…not in the majority, among whom desiccated branches continue to break off. But there is still fruit where the branches are connected to the vine.
This plot says a lot. Helping those who enter develop into mature Christians is super important, but it matters more in many ways to stop the mass exodus of kids leaving the Church when they turn 18 (or before).
https://roddreher.substack.com/p/microlooting-a-luxury-belief?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4a4b04fd-7d83-45e8-8d13-18c199362f63_792x1616.png&open=false
i think this is a two birds, one stone kind of issue. Kids are leaving the Church in large part because their parents don't actually practice the faith. There's some exceptions to that rule, but that is the rule for kids leaving the Church: most Catholics do not go to Church on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, which means they aren't setting a good example for their children. Most Catholics who go to Mass reject Church teaching on contraception, homosexuality, and/or abortion. The overwhelming majority of Catholics do not pray daily as a family. I mean, the Israelites left Egypt in part because they did not live or worship like Egyptians.
Forming adult Catholics in the need for these practices is something that can be done for both current and new Catholics. And there are a lot of ways to do it: homilies are the most obvious (and probably also the most powerful), but doing devotions as a parish in addition to the Mass, regularly and routinely, is a good way to *do* "this is important" in addition to saying it. Providing resources (pamphlets and prayer cards and such) offers both catechesis and the practical methods, and these can simply be made available without fanfare. At the very least, homilies on what living a Catholic life is supposed to be like will at least make clear to children that their parents aren't doing that, and that they are missing out on the Catholic Faith, rather than the Catholic Faith being lacking.
This is a consoling narrative in the grand scheme of things, but on the other side of the coin are the millions of baptized Catholics that have no idea what faith is, and rarely, if ever, step in a church. That group needs catechesis, mystagogia, and insertion into a Christian community as much recent converts.
I think adult classes are good things and important, but they also will only help those willing to devote an hour or two a week to those classes, which probably doesn't describe the un-churched, and they often take a lot of time and resources to organize and maintain. The little, low-resource things that address the people who do show to Mass once a month or more, can have an outsized impact, and I think they are generally neglected.
I am glad I am young, and I thank God that I live in days like this. Ten or twenty years ago it was easy to be a Christian! It was easy to be a priest! It was easy to be a religious! The very air we breathed was Christian. The whole atmosphere of social life was Christian. One just had to stand up and found it…
Today we declare ourselves…and so we’re developing strong souls today.
-almost-Blessed Fulton Sheen, at the ripe age of 77
How are we to respond?
By doing nothing. The moment we try to institutionalize anything, is the moment it will lose its authenticity. We welcome them, we encourage them, and we pray for them. What happens beyond that should be the same formation and outreach everyone else receives.
Any chance the Pillar could do a report on Mass attendance numbers from 2016-2026? That seems like it would give important context to the conversion boom vs. numbers of people leaving. If those leaving have already left, as it were, maybe Mass attendance numbers are up?