Today, with nearly 88% of Catholics not even attending Mass, there isn't the same "Catholicism in the blood" attitude amongst those who don't even bother to step foot in church even at Christmas and Easter let alone get married in the Church or have their children participate in the Church in any meaningful way even with baptism!
Philip Lawler though hits the nail on the head with is brief analysis of newer trends today (My comments and experience at the end):
In the past few days I’ve spoken to two friends who work as musicians in two different parishes.
One friend had a story that sounded very familiar. The older parishioners die, and when their middle-aged children come to bury them, they’re completely lost during the funeral. They don’t know the responses, don’t know when to stand or kneel or sit. It’s clear they haven’t seen the inside of a church in years.
But the other friend said something different. In the parish where he works, the number of funerals has dropped dramatically. The death rate hasn’t changed, and the demographics of the two parishes are roughly the same. But at this parish the middle-aged folks aren’t bothering to arrange funerals for their parents.
When I questioned a few friendly pastors, they told me that they had noticed the same trends. The first—the people who don’t know how to behave at a funeral—has been evident for some years now. The second—the decision not to have a funeral—is now on the rise. A quick service at a funeral home is less expensive, and if you don’t really know what goes on in the church anyway, why bother with the funeral Mass?
We’ve already seen a similar phenomenon regarding weddings. The lapsed Catholics of the baby-boom generation were married in churches. It was still “the thing to do,” and anyway their parents insisted. But their children now skip the church service. No one complains.
The Catholic community is shriveling all around us! We cannot just accept this generational attrition, looking upon it as inevitable. We’re in grave danger of losing the next generation. This isn’t just one of the problems facing the Church today. This is the problem. Because if we don’t solve it, the other problems won’t matter.
One friend had a story that sounded very familiar. The older parishioners die, and when their middle-aged children come to bury them, they’re completely lost during the funeral. They don’t know the responses, don’t know when to stand or kneel or sit. It’s clear they haven’t seen the inside of a church in years.
But the other friend said something different. In the parish where he works, the number of funerals has dropped dramatically. The death rate hasn’t changed, and the demographics of the two parishes are roughly the same. But at this parish the middle-aged folks aren’t bothering to arrange funerals for their parents.
When I questioned a few friendly pastors, they told me that they had noticed the same trends. The first—the people who don’t know how to behave at a funeral—has been evident for some years now. The second—the decision not to have a funeral—is now on the rise. A quick service at a funeral home is less expensive, and if you don’t really know what goes on in the church anyway, why bother with the funeral Mass?
We’ve already seen a similar phenomenon regarding weddings. The lapsed Catholics of the baby-boom generation were married in churches. It was still “the thing to do,” and anyway their parents insisted. But their children now skip the church service. No one complains.
The Catholic community is shriveling all around us! We cannot just accept this generational attrition, looking upon it as inevitable. We’re in grave danger of losing the next generation. This isn’t just one of the problems facing the Church today. This is the problem. Because if we don’t solve it, the other problems won’t matter.
My concluding comments: My own experience in the last few years is that Catholics my age (baby-boomers) who had parents who were very Catholic and from the pre-Vatican II era and whose baby boomer children were victims of the immediate post-Vatican II confusion and chaos in the Church, her liturgy, sacraments, governance and confused new morality. We baby boomers did not hand on to our children the pristine Catholic Faith we had prior to Vatican II but a more hit and miss application and individualized Catholicism based upon feelings and emotions, not on solid doctrine and clear and strict morality and discipline. Today we baby boomers have grandchildren and great grandchildren and they are not a part of the Catholic Church at all, completely off the radar screen!
Now these baby boomer Catholics who often don't go to Mass anymore and are clueless as to how to participate at Mass if by accident they have to attend a wedding or funeral no longer think it is important for their children, actually their grandchildren and great grandchildren to receive any of the sacraments of the Church, get married in the Church or be buried from the Church.
In the last two years, I have had aging baby boomers who have parents now in their 90's to die who have decided to have no funeral whatsoever for their good and faithful Catholic parent! Part of this is the ability to dispose of the body in a convenient way without ceremony through cremation!
I am also seeing young Catholics (hipsters, which I really don't know what that term means) who may well have been brought up in the Church, received a Catholic education through high school and serve the altar until they graduated from high school decide not to be married in the Church but join Protestant non-denominationals or no Church at all and have no desire to hand on the Catholic Faith to their children!
WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO DO? OH! WHAT ARE WE TO DO? (AS I WRING MY HANDS IN NOT SO QUIET DESPERATION!)
40 comments:
Fr, I believe that something really drastic is going to have to happen to bring people back to the Faith….some societal or cultural catastrophe, a world war (God forbid), or some alien invasion (not the one from Mexico). People just don't get it and are putting their faith in technology and humanism. We have to be hit in the head to be made to see things that are right in front of us.
Now, I have never been one to holler, "Oh, it is the end times," etc, but we might be reminded by the Christian extremists/millenialists that Salvation history is linear, the warnings from Christ are there in the NT, and God cannot be pleased at our current state of adherence to His Covenant.
We are sort of like an eschatological version of Bertrand Russell's chicken...
Who is Philip Lawler?
JBS, Journalist, editor of Crisis Magazine.
All the guys are standing around in the bar, when ol' Charlie walks in all depressed and hang dog. They ask him, "Charlie what in the world is wrong? You look terrible."
Charlie says, "My wife ran off with a gay Muslim journalist."
They all cried in unison, "A JOURNALIST!!!"
I hate to be cynical, but the next generation is lost. And yet we continue to do the same things and expect different results. The same cookie cutter methods towards youth ministry haven't worked...My suggestions.
1. Restore the Liturgy. It can't be something "normal" or mediocre. Without our worship correct, everything else will not follow. Bring back the propers (the full propers), kneeling, etc.
2. Quit assuming the stupid. What I mean by this is virtually everything is a google search away, yes the state of catechesis is abysmal (still)...but people are smarter than they're given credit for.
3. Pray hard for them, this culture is even more surrounded with options than previous generations.
Yes, Joe, indeed. Fix the Liturgy, fix the Church.
Joe Potillor,
While I do not deny that our Roman Rite liturgy needs to turn itself around generally, and that people can be lazy and selfish in not wanting to live up to the Baptisman/Confirmation mission, your comments show a narrow-minded and contain insult to myself and other young people who embrace the Latin Mass, and even reverently the Novus Ordo.
I invite you to view a posting on my blog I did earlier this year of Tradition and youth ministry (Lifeteen) intersecting as proof that not all is lost: http://torontotlmserving.blogspot.ca/2014/08/traditionalist-sign-of-hope-catholic.html.
As a 31 year old in the archdiocese of Toronto, I will say that liturgically, AND culturally in the Church, while we will not see a MASS turnaround of a large scale of 100,000's of fatihful and clergy in the Church going back to 1962, more of us youth are embracing the Church positively AND/OR taking liturgy seriously. Even in those novus ordo based youth ministries you smear, I have witnessed some of its participants become strong fighters for Jesus, not afraid to pronounce their Love for him as well as being active in our parishes and community-based Charity in line with the Church (e.g. myself and a few other young men in 20's and 30's joining the Knights of Columbus). Oh yeah, they also detest online bullying and harassment that they know is not in line with their Catholic faith.
Listen, I don't know what has happened to you personally in your personal and spiritual life to merit such a negative outlook, but I hope and pray for you that you will be able to move on more joyfully in your spiritual life. I am grateful you have "woken up from the matrix" as it were, but do not make such statements that only serve to make Traditional Catholicism or the Church in general look like the worst place on earth and all doom and gloom. Otherwise the Devil wins.
I firmly believe that the CHurch should stay the course- let those who do not want to participate in her Sacramental Life go...pray for these poor folks...leave it to the Holy Ghost.In the meantime those who do stay will be a stronger community-and stronger in the traditions of the church instead of the watered-down gruel that passed for catechetics these last 50 years.
Julian, I have found Joe's posts to be knowledgeable, sincere, and actually encouraging because he "gets it." You sound a lot like some Baptists I know.
You can buy the "Lapsed Catholic" tee shirts online for 25 bucks. Seems high to me...
The last t-shirt I bought on line had a picture of a B-17 dropping bombs and said, "Give War A Chance." I wear it to PO my liberal neighbors and the guys at the bike shop, who are largely tree-huggers.
Julian,
I'm not sure why Joe's comments would elicit your response. I think that based on your desire for reverential liturgy you should only consider Joe as a 100% ally. You have to know who your friends are and I don't think you should be finding too many disagreeable folks on this blog site. The offense you've taken from Joe's concern about the 18-35 year old crowd doesn't seem to be founded in anything other than your desire to wish that your generation isn’t sinking to lower levels than those generations immediately before yours. Each successive generation sinks lower and you can blame their state on the older folks. The 60s generation was probably worse in character than any other but they’ve influenced the standards of the younger people. I think you’re misleading yourself if you don’t recognize that your generation is being fully Europeanized and we are gradually turning into a atheistic hemisphere like the once great countries have been for some time. That’s kind of what the pope attempted to tell them when he spoke to the EU parliament but then he began to mix his Peronista ideas in and the message failed.
Mike
Gene...If I could post a photo, I'd show you one of the B-36 "Peacemakers" that I worked on as a jet engine mechanic during the "Korean conflict". I helped save AMERICA from Godless Communism. If I send you a PO box, will you send me a thank you check?
I'll bet not....
Mike, Well said.
Anonymous - I think it is arguable that the 60's generation was worse in character than any other and that we are in an inexorable slide down into some moral/cultural morass.
If, as you say, you can blame the behavior of the younger generation (the 60's) on the older generation (the 40's), then, surely, the 40's bear the lion's share of the blame for what went on with the 60's generation.
Yet, that generation is lauded as "The Greatest Generation."
Also, society made great strides through the first 5 decades of the 1900's - eliminating Jim Crow laws, beginning to recognize the equality of women, producing one of the greatest (the greatest?) expansion of the American Middle Class, extraordinary advances in manufacturing, space exploration and telecommunications.
Peronism rejects the extremes of capitalism and communism. As practiced in Argentina, Peronism was, perhaps, too authoritarian, but the goals it aimed for - giving all a decent life - are those taught by the Church and founded on the justice taught by the Prophets.
So, at last, Ignotus admits he is a socialist. No surprises here.
Anonymous, a lot of us served and did not end up as cynical about our country as you. What happened?
Gene you are REALLY boring.
I'm one of those baby boomers with an elderly parent, and when I have asked for the Sacrament of the Sick for my dad or mom, various priests have been somewhat hesitant, and maybe even a bit suspicious of me, as if I may be living an apostate life and still wanting to receive Communion (as the caretaker). Most seem surprised I am a practicing Catholic. That's how far it has fallen apart.
When my dad died, we called the priest who came to the emergency room at the hospital to perform a provisional "last rites," and the hospital staff was so taken aback to have a priest in the ER, because it seemed all of them knew about such a thing (remember when people carried a card or wore a metal that said, "I am a Catholic. Please call a priest."?) but hadn't seen such a thing in, well, a long, long time. For my dad, we had the normal wake, and the deacon came for prayers, and then the funeral Mass and burial in the Catholic cemetery. I will do the same for my mother. Isn’t it a tragedy that, even though the baby boomer no longer believes or practices, they won’t honor their parent by giving them a Catholic burial?
I recall reading a baby boomer age columnist in the local newspaper reflecting on her mother's death and dying. She wrote about her obviously Catholic mother who asked her daughter to pray for her, and this columnist, much to my horror, said in her column she just couldn't provide such a thing for her mother. I was just appalled. I thought to myself, yeah, but if your mom had asked you to light incense in some Buddhist temple for her, you would have been honored to do so, I bet. But a simple Our Father was just too much to ask? For your own mother?
Such is the faithlessness of my peers. With such ones surrounding us, is it any wonder our country is in such disarray? What I think is the most laughable about it though, is that they believe somehow the whole wonderful culture they enjoyed as youths and adults up to now is going to go on as usual, only now without God. As if the faith of their parents and the way they lived was not what brought about such a prosperous and a happy life. I think they are all in for a BIG surprise! But more than all that, I am just sickened when I think of their destiny after death, because I know Our Lord will be able to say to them, but you KNEW Me. Wow. Just wow. How are they ever going to justify that?
What to do, Father? Pray. Pray, pray, pray. Institute Adoration at your parish. Renew public novenas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Publicly pray the rosary. It is not about a fancy liturgy, or great music. It is about prayer. And it must start with leadership in holiness by the priests. That is your most critical job. Prayer.
PI,
You could be right about the 40s generation, because they did put the secular saint Roosevelt in office 4X. The idea that that was the “greatest generation” is hard to swallow.
Economic advancement and spiritual decline is a very complicated subject. Unfortunately frequently the two have an inverse relationship and that phenomenon is not ephemeral. That’s why priests like you and the pope miss the important dangers developed by the wealth that sound economic policy creates. Good economic policy produces wealth and we know about the camel and the needle’s eye.
There is no question what produces economic prosperity, but it’s up to priests like you to help people to detach themselves from their love for the good life. Mistakenly you and Francis want to criticize the system instead of the abuse of the system. The same is done by the modern culture that attacks the Church instead of the bad characters that abuse their positions within the Church.
You are smart enough to know that socialists and communists always profess to be concerned about the poor as the devil tells the poor the same thing when he tempts people into hating those who have more than them. The result is always the same – genocide. I’m afraid that Gene might be right about your political persuasions if you identify Peronism, that was full of hate for the Catholic faith, as the happy middle. That puts you on dangerous ground. Free markets with strong spiritual guidance from a powerful Catholic clergy is the model for 1000 years of peace on Earth.
Mike
You want my honest opinion? Burn vatican 2 documents in St.Peter's square,Celebrate a 1951 latin mass immediately, and go back to the true Catholic faith asap.Go back and embrace,revere,profess, and hold the true catholic faith that urged 88% of catholics to attend mass before 1960.I hope you post this as this is stated with sincere concern and love for our faith that Jesus Christ died for.Viva Christo Rey!
Put some faith in the faith.
Does the Catholic faith authoritatively convey Truth or not?
Those who want to "change" doctrine to be more "welcoming" have no interest in either The Truth or the faith. All that "changing" the doctrine will do is convince the fence-sitters and atheists that Christ's Church was all a lie to begin with.
Be thankful that God has revealed Himself and that some embrace Him and covey His Truth. Pray for those who embrace anything else.
Mike and Gene, thank you for your defense and your comments, it is much appreciated.
Julian, certainly there are pockets of resistance to the general trend that I am criticizing, definitely a good thing, but as a collective whole, it's a continuing downward trend, and the people who were formed by bad Liturgical praxis and the absence of Tradition are now slowly getting in charge as the next generation is steeping up to the plate.
The good news is that unlike past generations, there will be no way to trick the new generation as information is there for the taking to those that seek it.
The bad news is that the same generation will be less likely to look up said information due to a collective laziness and a lack of willingness to work for a particular goal.
Even in the secular world, I have students complaining of 30 problems (with the answers in the back) a night (I had 70) and it's quite frustrating that the students aren't willing to put forth the effort to learn. (I'm a math and physics teacher)...I can't even begin to imagine the uphill climb that religious formation is going to take.
When it comes to restoration of the Liturgy I'm 100% with you, and the majority of us that comment on this blog are with you.
I don't know how you were able to discern my personal disposition from the comments that I've made. Joy is a state of being and I'm always joyful, but I'm not afraid to call things as I see them.
I will remember you at Divine Liturgy tomorrow. Pax
Anthony, you are part of the problem I am decrying and others as well, make-it-up as you go Catholicism or if it doesn't suit you, become an excommunicated schismatic.
I am grateful for by 1950's upbringing in Catholicism that taught us that God does test us and tests our faith to see where our fidelity is or if we would become adulterous as it concerns the faith.
Think about it Anthony. You may not like what Vatican II did to the Church. God doesn't ask you to like anything, he asks you to be faithful to Holy Mother Church, and that always includes the Bishop of Rome who rules supreme in the areas of faith, morals and canon law.
What you seek, yanking 2 billion Catholics around again will by burning Vatican II would be like the Orthodox who want to burn every Council including Trent. It would make us a irrelevant as the Orthodox are today and these schismatic fringe groups people belong to like you sect.
Anonymous, you did not answer my question.
I don’t think much can be done about those Catholics that walked out of the Church so many years ago, and they are not lapsed Catholics but are anti-Christian. The effort it seems then is to get a younger generation to peer inside a church. Too many of them Catholicism is a counter culture and almost Avant-Garde. The majority have never experienced a Latin high mass, incense, sacred music, or the beauty of some of our older churches. One simple thing to get them to peek inside a church might be to leave the door open so that they can do some exploration on their own. One group that comes to mind in getting people into older churches is Buffalo Mass Mob, and I have to wonder what kind of demographics they attract? I wonder how many young people that group is attracting to the churches they highlight in their campaigns. By highlighting those churches they are embracing their heritage rather than trying to hide from it. I don’t make a case for only older pre V-II churches either, what Buffalo Mass Mob does for older churches can be applied to the contemporary ones too; though the older ones were designed specifically to stimulate the senses and one’s curiosity. Stained Glass, frescos, and statuary were learning aids for the illiterate masses of the middle age, as many today are illiterate to much of the Church’s teachings, traditions, and history.
Hello Joe.
Thanks for chiming in once again here.
Firstly, I'll explain my response to your post, and where I am coming from.
What initially elicited my response was that in your first posting you stated that our generation was lost. It was phrased absolutely, without any exceptions or notes as in your reply. Being of those generations, having some involvement through serving in the EF of the Roman rite, that just really got to me. While I have been involved in the EF, I've woken up more to my faith than before, and I am much more aware of things culturally and politically in the Church and secular society. However, in participating in the EF, I have come across disgusting Pharisees titled "Radical Traditionalists" who are joyless, liturgical war-beasts with much lack of charity and committing sins of detraction and calumny online and in person, all the while making the Church and society seem "hopeless". One could say some frequent commentators on this blog fit that descriptor to a tee. I have encountered them too in my home Archdiocese of Toronto, and experienced their false "fraternal correction," so I know of those people in person. THEY ARE NOT MYTHS.
Sadly, their actions backfire and gain the ire of the Church's hierarchy who allow these Traditional practices, and worse, cause spiritual and actual division, even within their own Trad communities, and against other good Catholics in the Church. I've decided I will not tolerate anymore these self-appointed judges getting away with it and misrepresenting us, and will speak up and fight. Otherwise, we will lose everything, as Fr. Z opines.
Also, I have participated to some extent in youth ministries and Catechesis over the last few years, as well as made some friends through my local Newman Center at the university of Toronto. Yes, some might elicit cries of liberal social justice "poison" in the material, or balk at the use of some praise and worship hymns with Eucharistic Adoration and parishes I've attended (believe me, It's not my cup of tea for Masses, ugh.) Even with all that, there are signs of hope: Youth ministry pupils posting on their Facebook walls, openly, their love of Christ and sharing pictures; a young confirmandus questioning things deeper that what's in his book and wanting more answers we can't give in the time limit; other 20's-30's like myself LOVNIG Mass and Christ and being happy practicing the Catholic faith. Such witness tells me that I cannot be a sad-sack and give true credence to what Radicals online are saying. THERE IS HOPE, and our next generation, albeit small, will be the springboard for the next, like the recent parable of the Talents in the Gospel for Year A. I'll admit I was testy and defensive, but knowing what I know now motivates me. I could have probed further or asked for clarification in a more charitable way..... (split into 2 parts due to 4096 char limit)
.... Now for the goods. Yes, definitely I agree our liturgies MUST be, Churchwide (of which the majority is Roman Rite), more reverent and orthodox, and visually/spiritually transcendent to the average Joe pew-warmer. I don't care what my friends and family think, St. Louis' Jesuits' "All the ends of the Earth" as an example does NOT convey that the Saints and Christ are converging at the Altar at Mass, as per the Book fo Revelation. It's a piece of annoying pop-garbage. All your sentiments are definitely correct, and I guess our culture is just more rampant and greedy and promoting of self-indulgence as ever, hence the culture of apathy and sloth, even in teaching youth anything, be it physics, or even Catechism. But there is hope for all of us, and it seems that when the Church has it's back up against a wall, literally and metaphorically, it is at its strongest, and becomes forged anew in fire of chastisement.
Also, you are a Byzantine Riter! Whoa! That's so cool! I must say, one of the beautiful treasures (generally, save exceptions in some individual parishes) is that Vatican II didn't seem to touch the Eastern Rites as much, and with that, the Byzantine rite is much more proficient in catechesis and spiritual nourishment of the faithful. I guess in that as well would be that most parishes didn't muck about their liturgical practices and kept their physical and spiritual beauty (a.k.a. did NOT destroy their items for the sake of modernity and liturgical "novelty" nor re-write their liturgy).
Thank you once again Joe, for clearing things up, especially for your prayers for me during your Byzantine rite Mass. I'll add you to mine as well. Let's keep the good fight of the faith up, with the Joy of the Gospel in our hearts!
Another disagreement we have is paul vi changing the words to ordination / consecration post June 1968.There are catholics like me,based on interpretation,who don't consider Francis a valid priest or bishop.We didn't make up anything nor did we change anything.We hold fast to the faith handed down to us by the apostles.I am sorry if you think such because Vatican 2 was the council that literally changed holy orders, confirmation, and extreme unction.It also embraced ecumenical heresies.Can you please in all due respect,tell me how our priest and church changed the catholic faith?I ask this in sincerity not sarcasm.
Wow, Bee, you are a kindred spirit. You said it for me!
I wrote the following yesterday morning, but had second thoughts, wondering if it might be thought incendiary in some way--I don't mean for it to be, so here goes:
We are all a mixed bag, Father, including Catholic clergy. My observations over the years: Many clergy do and give their very best to pass on the faith (including careful liturgies, good homiletics, and even running blogs!), but their number is dwindling and their resolve diluted by many things including covering for errant, lazy or "challenged" compadres. God bless the committed priests with strong faith and work ethic.
Some clergy, however, never "man-up" for various reasons, including but not limited to:
1. Lukewarm and poorly vetted for seminary from the start
2. Poor formation in a sub-standard seminary
3. Sidetracked in their vocation by "agendas"--some personal, some socio-cultural
4. Lazy attitude/off-putting personalities such that we and/or our young would not approach them even when lives depended on it (just ask me!)
5. Recurrent "I'm too busy", with souls perishing underfoot
6. Sin
God forgive me, but this does get personal. Souls are lost.
I do not wish to be harsh and I certainly do not want to prejudge the circumstances of any particular family, but quite apart from being a “lapsed Catholic,” it seems to me that in principle any child who does not give their parents the kind of funeral they want, or would want, because that is more “convenient” seems to be lacking something in gratitude and charity, whatever their denomination or lack thereof. What am I missing?
Gene:
“Charlie says, ‘My wife ran off with a gay Muslim journalist.’”
– Charlie obviously does not know much about Islam.
“The last t-shirt I bought on line had a picture of a B-17 dropping bombs and said, ‘Give War A Chance.’ I wear it to PO my liberal neighbors and the guys at the bike shop, who are largely tree-huggers.”
– So, do they take you up on it and punch you in the nose? =)
No, Anon 2, because I think they suspect that is exactly what I would like them to do…make my day and all that...
Look to the pro-life couples and families, the homeschoolers, the Latin Mass people. The people actually involved in the day to day life of the parish... maybe 5% of the parish are these 'stalwarts'. 1% would be martyrs rather than deny the faith. The rest are "in process" along a spectrum and are our mission territory.
If I were a Pastor (thank God I'm not nor ever will be), I'd spend 3-4 years working on a core group of dedicated Catholics who have had their "aha" "come to Jesus" moment at least once in their life. People who go to confession.
I'd pray with them, study Church documents with them, and we'd all spend some time in Eucharistic adoration.
These are the folk I'd be leaning on like 12 apostles to become task force leaders for the liturgy, catechesis, hospitality and evangelization in my community.
I'd fast and pray for them.
Alas, I'm but a layman and so have neither spiritual authority nor ecclesial authority to command anyone to do anything.
As a layman I can only persuade and suggest.
But this is what I'm doing in my little corner of the Kingdom: gather good souls to walk with me towards Our Lord in Adoration, rosary, study circles.... to encourage them and help them in their ministries and personal initiatives.
If the youth are being lost, then these 5% of active Catholics must take what we know and bring it to children and teens and there's a lot of ways and venues to do this outside of formal religious education classes: sports, scouts, mentorship, organizing events and activities that require the 'help' of teens and young adults.... expose them to the Lord and Godly activity.
Gene, do you help teach kids how to shoot? That's a great way to instruct kids in responsibility and together broach other topics of Catholic concern.
Take kids on a hike, use a compass and causally mention how God and the Church are the magnetic north and compass of our moral lives leading to salvation...
Don't take the Marxist/secular seizure of the means of education and communication for granted. We can and must reach the next generation with the truth and virtue and we lay people are positioned to do this at least for a dozen or so kids in our immediate area of operations.
Jusad, I have taught Japanese martial arts to ages 12 and up for years and have had several students join the Catholic Church after my suggesting they visit. I keep it low key and never brow beat folks like the prot evangelicals.
I have only taught adults to shoot on occasion when they have asked.
You are correct about the Left controlling education and communication in this country. The Left writes the text books.
@Jusad You are spot on,Mate! Great intelligent comment,one of the best I've read this year.
Gene, if I'm ever in Macon, I'd love to go shooting with you.
We have to pass on the values and virtues to the next generation that they flat out will not get from the world, flesh, and devil. They won't get it from watered down Catholicism either.
If we don't want to see empty pews, we need to gather as many youth around our hobbies and activities as we can so they have personal experience of faithful, adult Catholic laity. So they can see what a happy Catholic life is life as a real "alternative lifestyle" to what the world preaches as the elixir of eternal life (sex, drugs, rock n roll...)
Jusad, before this thread disappears into the Ethernet, I just want to thank you for your posts. If more of us would focus on your advice AND encourage vibrant, traditional Catholic values & practices, we might begin to see a turn-around before we are planted...
Jusad, by the time you get to Macon, maybe they will have declared open season on libs…well, maybe too much to hope for. But, I do have some Obama targets that I got before they stopped showing up in gun shops. One of them is his stupid little decal with a target super-imposed.
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