WHY IS THERE SUCH POLARIZATION IN THE CHURCH AND THE LOSS OF CATHOLIC IDENTITY LEADING TO WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN CHILE AND ALMOST EVERY CATHOLIC COUNTRY IN THE WORLD? LOOK NO FURTHER THAN UNBRIDLED CHANGE BROUGHT ON BY VATICAN II

An article at Crux which you can read in full HERE hits the nail on the head as to what has happened to the Catholic Church in the last 50 years:

A recent poll shows that Chile is the country in Latin America where the pope has the lowest approval ratings, at only only 53 percent, well below the regional average of 68. In addition, only 36 percent of Chileans trust the Catholic Church as an institution.

The same poll, by Santiago-based think tank Latinobarometro, showed that the number of Chileans calling themselves Catholic fell to 45 percent last year, from 74 percent in 1995.

That loss of credibility has several roots, but speaking with Crux, sources identified two as the main ones: the Church’s response to cases of clerical sexual abuse, and growing secularization.

Compare the Crux quote to the ostrich head in the sand approach at Praytell which you can read in full HERE:

As we gathered today around Word and Table to keep the Lord’s Day, many of us will have noticed, as we increasingly do, that the congregation was small and the church rather empty. And those who did come were largely over 50 or 60 years old. Yes, some younger people, and some parents with children, but not a lot. High schoolers? Young adults? Hardly.

It’s shocking. And depressing. And fear-inducing. Where will we be in 10 years if this continues?

Then we regularly see headlines such as

• “Denomination X membership has declined by 20% in only Y years”;
• “Diocese X” is closing 75 parishes”;
• “Fewer than X% of Gen-Z Post-Millennials have a favorable image of church”

and so forth, and on and on.

Where’s the hope? Where’s the joy? Where’s the reason to trust in God’s providence?

The place to start, I believe, is not with reassuring Happy-Talk, but with sadness.

It hurts to see so much decline and decay. It’s painful to contrast the present with our memories of 10 or 25 or 50 ago. There is even bitterness. (When one diocese called its plan “Making All Things New,” I heard of someone calling it “Making All Things Disappear.”) We want to lament in the words of Psalm 42:5, “How I would lead the rejoicing crowd into the house of God, amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving, the throng wild with joy.” The crowds are gone now, the throngs are a distant memory.

My comments: I don't know how bishops would have handled the sex abuse scandal in the information and tell all age without the ethos of arrogance, triumphalism and the belief that the Church in the name of Christ could forgive, heal and RESTORE broken clergy guilty of the most egregious forms of abuse. Somehow though, I don't think pre-Vatican II bishops put that much stock in what psychiatrists and therapy could accomplish. So maybe if there had not been the triumphalism of Vatican II's mentality or at least its spirit, we'd be in the same boat today as it concerns the loss of the Church's moral authority and the disgust which rank and file Catholics hold toward bishops and clergy in this regard. But I don't think there would have been the loss of priestly identity if not for Vatican II's confusion and triumphalism.

My second point jumps from the Mass at St. Peter's for migrants, basically a 1960's folk Mass that was multi-lingual. From a performance point of view the music was well rehearsed and executed except for the singers with their "hip" current look--torn jeans and contrived saccharine  look as they sang. 

But the music--what in the name of God and all that is holy does it have to do with Catholic Tradition or tradition and at St. Peter's which should guard the worship of the Church as much as is humanly possible? And the Propers were not even chanted as is normally done at the Vatican and the principles of translation were not followed in the horrible repetitive Sanctus which was rather childish. 

Could you imagine the Fathers of Vatican II in a Rip Van Winkle fashion awakening to this Mass, what there thoughts would have been? Just look at the faces of the Eastern Rite Bishops present for this Mass and you would get a sense. 

Loss of Catholic identity because of Vatican II's polarizing changes, similar to the polarization we see again as a result of the current papacy's unprecedented changes to moral theology and the eligibility to receive the Sacraments.