Fr Martin Sirju

I was deeply disturbed by a recent article in the New York Times (July 4, 2006) sent to me by a priest friend. Entitled “Catholicism faces biggest crisis since Reformation”.

I was disturbed because it presented some depressing figures for Catholic identity and practice in Great Britain. The statistics were not totally surprising since I had come across them before in piecemeal fashion. They were just depressing.

The article began: “The Roman Catholic Church in Britain is facing its greatest threat since the Reformation, according to research. Over three decades [1963-1991] Mass attendance has slumped by 40 percent, baptisms by 50 percent, Catholic marriages by 60 percent and confirmations by 60%. The 260-page study of the Church indicates that the number of adult converts fell by 55% and first communions by nearly 40 percent, described as the ‘greatest pastoral and demographic catastrophe’ since the Reformation of the 16th century.”

Fr Taylor’s article (Catholic News, July 16) was no consolation either. He wrote: “According to the National Population Census, the RC Church lost 17,000 members in 10 years (1980 to 1990). In the next 10-year period (1990 to 2000) we lost 41,000.

Thus in 20 years (1980 to 2000) we lost 58,000 members! That is a loss of one of every six Catholics [16.67%]. The RC population in 1980 was 347,740, and in 2000 it had dropped to 289,711. This is not just a crisis; it is a massive exodus.

To compound the matter, it is estimated that only 20 percent of these actually attend Mass weekly!” As you can see, Fr Taylor’s figures confirm our own “greatest pastoral and demographic catastrophe” since the Reformation.

In South America the picture is no different. An article in the Boston Globe (April 8, 2005) entitled “Catholicism challenged in Brazil” states that the Catholic population there has fallen from 92% in 1970 to 73% in 2005 – a 19% decrease!

Returning to Fr Taylor’s figures, while we have suffered a massive decline in churchgoing other faiths have celebrated an increase. This means that 58,000 members have either become, Spiritual Baptist, Orisha, Pentecostal or Muslim, especially, I suspect, the last two.

A similar pattern is observed in America. In a National Catholic Reporter (June 30) article entitled “Muslims in America”, the author remarks that second and third generations Latinos are converting from Catholicism to Pentecostalism and Islam.

We are therefore looking at a universal trend and need to ask why do so many Catholics find Pentecostalism and Islam so appealing? Our present crisis at home cries out for some kind of sociological investigation.

Our custom has been to see the decline as an external problem i.e. it is due to factors like materialism and secularism: God has been edged out of people’s lives due to a disproportionate emphasis on money in our rapidly expanding economy and a misplaced optimism in the benefits of science and technology.

I agree with these two reasons but they do not account for the whole picture. Pentecostals and Muslims live their faiths in the same materialistic and secularist milieu and still get converts. We get very few.

Why? I think some answers are intra-ecclesial. I think Fr Taylor is on to something when he speaks of “baptism in the Spirit” – not of course that all priests need to be “baptised in the Spirit”, as is understood in the popular charismatic sense, but that there needs to be a deeper conversion among the baptised.

This can come about through various ways – through a sense of being called (vocation), through sickness, bible study/prayer groups, a fervent life of contemplation or via what is more commonly called the charismatic experience (“release of the Spirit”). There seems to be a “Jesus and me” spirituality that is very popular today and that flows from a deep sense of personal conversion.

As a 33-year old former Catholic woman in Rio de Janeiro put it: “I don’t need an intermediary to teach me right from wrong. Faith is not about the pastors, it is not about the saints. It is about God and me.”

We may rightfully object that “Jesus and me” has never been a good summary of Catholic spirituality but the fact remains that is where many people are today.

We need to ask ourselves: does Catholic liturgy attend to this individualised subjectivity? My honest answer to that is no so if people are looking for that today they will not come to us. They will go elsewhere or stay at home.

Catholic liturgy appeals to the community; the community prays and worships and the individual is not allowed much personal creativity. There is much more room for that in Pentecostal assemblies and charismatic prayer meetings.

There is another side too. I think we have lost people because of certain types of priestly and episcopal leadership. Autocratic priests who do not collaborate with lay people turn them away. The recent sex abuse scandals in the US, Canada, the UK and other parts of the world have created a crisis in episcopal leadership.

As a Church we are just not as credible as we used to be. Furthermore, some of our moral/doctrinal positions, especially those regarding divorce, concubinage, birth control/condom usage, abortion, stem cell research, same-sex unions and women’s ordination have turned people away from us.

These teachings of the Church admit of no ambiguity or “grey” area and many people have rejected them in whole or in part for a “simpler” faith.

There is one final area that is capturing my attention lately – the demise of the sense of mystery since Vatican II. Indeed there is a movement in the Church today to “reform the reform” – the latter “reform” being the Second Vatican Council.

It is this absence of the sense of mystery in the Church today, which has many people, including some curial cardinals, calling for a return to Latin in the liturgy, especially the Mass. Even the Tablet (July 1) surprisingly carried an editorial supporting this move.

Some critics have argued that the removal of Latin, the placing of the tabernacle to the left side of the altar and the priest no longer with his back turned to the people have all but destroyed a sense of mystery in the Church. Jesus has become too familiar, the human Son has displaced the transcendent Father and Lord of all.

I believe such a demise in the sense of the sacred has taken place in our churches. Churches have become talk-shops, a place to expose one’s body and where cell phones regularly disrupt Mass.

Could this be why many people, especially young men, find Islam so attractive? Islam emphasises the omnipotence and transcendent holiness of God. Not even Muhammed has been humanised as much as Jesus thanks to the historical-critical method.

Islam also has a strong sense of the community (ummah), many would say to the exclusion of others. But at least it provides a sense of belonging in a way our dubious Catholic identity does not. Have we come to grips with these problems in our Church? I suspect not.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Catholic world is just that: how do we regenerate a sense of mystery, how do we restore the Catholic sacramental imagination.

It is the major concern occupying the mind of Benedict XVI who chose his name partly in admiration of St Benedict who re-Christianised Europe after the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages are here again.

Do we have a plan to re-Christianise the Caribbean? Regarding this challenge I suspect we have only scratched the surface.