The front page of today`s Times announced in an article by Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent: `Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church`. The gist of the story is that attendance at the Catholic Church in this country has exploded with recent immigration. It makes the claim:
From being an Irish-English church in a mindset of managing steady decline, the Church has within the space of 12 months found itself having to countenance an unprecedented expansion and change in its ethnic make-up.
One comment on Ruth Gledhill`s blog, which seems to have disappeared now I have gone back to look for it, pointed out, with the figures, that for quite a while now the number of practising Catholics has exceeded the numbers of practising Anglicans in this country. I have spoken to priests in other parts of the country whose congregations have increased dramatically through Polish immigrants but, so far as I am aware, they haven`t showed up here. St Aidan`s and St Mary`s are pretty full anyway at a weekend, but we could do with some Polish newcomers at SS Peter and Paul`s! A priest friend tells me that the future of the Catholic church in this country lies with immigration. I just hope that after a generation or two, our new arrivals have kept the faith and haven`t fallen prey to the high lapsation rates prevalent among Catholics today.
One comment on Ruth Gledhill`s blog, which seems to have disappeared now I have gone back to look for it, pointed out, with the figures, that for quite a while now the number of practising Catholics has exceeded the numbers of practising Anglicans in this country. I have spoken to priests in other parts of the country whose congregations have increased dramatically through Polish immigrants but, so far as I am aware, they haven`t showed up here. St Aidan`s and St Mary`s are pretty full anyway at a weekend, but we could do with some Polish newcomers at SS Peter and Paul`s! A priest friend tells me that the future of the Catholic church in this country lies with immigration. I just hope that after a generation or two, our new arrivals have kept the faith and haven`t fallen prey to the high lapsation rates prevalent among Catholics today.
Many thanks to Ruth for the mention of Forest Murmurs on her blog.
3 comments:
Hebdomadary, I`m glad to hear you say this. I know good, orthodox priests who say the liturgy is not the central issue but the problem is that society has changed and we must find new ways to reach people. All I know is that for me the liturgy IS the issue. I simply wouldn`t be able to take myself to many Catholic liturgies if I were a layman except out of a need to fulfil my Sunday obligation. What I find amazing is the level of resistance to making the liturgy less like entertainment and more like an opportunity to pray.
Sadly most people have voted with their feet when it comes to the liturgy. I know in my own family there was almost complete lapsation after the introduction of the novus ordo (whatever its rights or wrongs). If I hadn't discovered the traditional liturgy I'm sure I would have lapsed as well. The liturgy needs to be different from our everyday life - we should celebrate God in the liturgy and the community in the parish hall. If the Mass can be seen once more as a prayer rather than a community get together we might see people coming back. Thinking of it in marketing terms, to get the consumer to buy your product you have to offer them something different. To win souls for Christ you have to give them that something special which will show them a ‘glimpse of heaven’ - of the transcendent. If the liturgy is a contradiction to our modern lives rather than an ill-fitting complement then, I think, people will return.
Father, the liturgy is the issue. The more people are told that 'commemorating the last meal of Jesus our friend is a good way of making friends', the more intelligent young people are going to look elsewhere.
On the other hand, when they are told of the Sacrifice of the Cross, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and what Christ the Son of God did for for us by willingly laying down His life to redeem us, the more we will challenge them to be Christ-like.
It's not rocket-science - but then again, it's not protestant. It take some courage to be a Catholic - and our young people have that courage in spades if we only give them the true message in all its fullness. Unfortunately much damage has been done by bishops, priests and lay-folk over the past 40 years and it will take some courage and patience to repair that damage.
God bless all that you are doing for the Church.
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