Difficult Time for the Catholic Church in the USA - Essay Example

? DIFFICULT TIME FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN USA College: Difficult Time for the Catholic Church in USA The 21st century has been a challenging moment for the Catholic Church not only in the USA but also in the in the entire world. The Catholic Church continues to lose more of his members and more priests are defecting from the church. The majority of the people opts to join protestant churches while some drop out church and opt to live a life completely out of religion. Statistics indicate that there is a massive migration of Catholic members and this is trend is projected to gain more momentum in the near future. A number of analysts have pointed out that the reason why the church is losing followers is because it has remained faithful to the Biblical concept of secular life which has seen it go against the new social norms in the contemporary society. Contemporary issues such as homosexuality, contraception, divorce, single parenthood and abortion have seen the church lose many followers. Others feel that the church has failed to adopt relevant religious strategies of preaching to satisfy the contemporary society. The teachings of the church must meet the social demands of the people in the society today. In fact, the reason why the Catholic church continues to lose its followers is because it has failed to adjust its teaching to suit the emerging demands of society. It is an indisputable fact that the Catholic Church has been hit by a follower crisis in the 21st century losing most of its members and priest. According to the Week (2010, Para. 1), a US magazine, a National Catholic Reporter termed the Catholics loss of members as the “largest national crisis in centuries.” The US Catholic National reporter presented a statistical countdown of the loss that US alone has experienced since the year 1960. In a 2009 study, the church lost 400 thousand followers, 9 thousand priest and over 1000 parishes closed in 2008. Resultantly, over 3,400 churches are served by visiting priests as the population of priest decline to an insufficient figure. Currently, the catholic population adds up to the 1.1 billion which is much lower than the Muslim population which is now at 1.5 billion. On the other hand, the population of the protestant churches is growing as more people consider the protestant believe as more concrete and satisfactory than the catholic believe. This kind of population decline of Catholic followers has sent signals to the catholic leaders, among them the Pope, to rethink on the reason why the church is in a state of crisis. The reason why the Catholic Church continues to lose its followers seems to be a mystery that is yet to be unveiled. In a recent speech about the “exodus” from the Catholic Church, Pope Francis termed this trend as the “the mystery of those who leave the church” to express the worry of the church on the current crisis (Pullella, 2013, Para. 4). In his speech, he recognized the need for the church to walk with the people and to address the social problems that the people are experiencing in the contemporary society. One reason he identified as a cause of the exodus is because the people feel that the church has remained rigid in implementing its own formulas (Para. 5). In a world that is changing, rigidity is the only thing that a church that addresses the problems of the people can afford. Pope Francis recognized that the church has to address the secular issues that are threatening the survival of the church to maintain the loyalty of the people. The implication of the statement of the Pope is that to a great extent the church has failed to conform to the societal needs, hence losing its followers to secularism. The emergence of controversial social issues has seen the Catholic Church lose more of its members. One of the social issues that have generated a lot of heat in the social spheres is same sex marriages that many people today see as a necessary right. Kissling (2013, Pp. 5-6) points out that the Catholic Church has not lost its members due to its strong faith but because of the harsh way they have responded on issue surrounding homosexuality. While this kind of relationship has been adopted in the USA human rights act, the Catholic Church terms it as a “non-negotiable” issue that the church cannot condone. Kissling (p. 6) finds this attitude as rather unappealing to the public who are bound to sway from the social demands. While it is good for the church to remain faithful to the Biblical teachings, the church should be able to appreciate the changes in social spheres and negotiate their way out with the followers. This would help the followers to remain loyal to the church and the church would be able to convince them out these social pressures. In this regard, it is the harshness of the church that has made its followers move to protestant churches which are more accommodative. The inability of the Catholic Church to walk the same path with its followers has made them lose their religious ground. The role of the church in society is to contribute to the social, spiritual and moral needs of the people by providing them with a room to shelter all their worries. Abortion is one the social issues that have come up in the 21st century and has become a hot topic in the social spheres. As more activists push for its legalization, the government has found it in favor to grant it in some critical situations. The activists argue that since the rate of abortion has increased and the more people are losing their lives while using crude methods in to abort, it would be worth to save humanity by legalizing it. On this issue, the Catholic Church has termed it as a “Primordial evil” that goes against the Biblical teaching on life (Kissling, 2013, p. 6). However, the fact remains that the church members are likely to commit abortion due to economic and social pressures. Resultantly, owing to the negative attitude of the church on Abortion, such members feel guilty to return to the church and dropping from the church completely. In this regard, the reason why many members have dropped from the Catholic Church is because the church has made the congregation feel guiltier of their sins rather than appreciate the sinners. Another social issue that has blossomed in the US society is divorce and the existence of people among the public who intend to remain unmarried in the society. Social pressures today have become so severe that the public has been compelled to make considerable strides as far as their marriage life is concerned. Factors such as equality in marriage have controversially divided the people among the line of gender. As the people try to adjust to the social pressures, they are bound to experience more family instabilities in the course of their marriage life. Break ups and divorce have become the order of the day as women quest for more power in marriage in a state that has maintained the struggle to empower women. As more instances of divorce emerge, more youths are more than willing to remain unmarried as they perceive marriage as a source of social suffering (Schoenherr, 2004, P. 164). These are real issues that the church must be concerned about to win over their congregations. In contrary, the Catholic Church has remained in the front line in condemning divorce as a crime that will never be admitted into the church. The United States Conference of Archbishops (2013) does not allow divorced partners to receive the sacraments until an annulment process. As such, the victims of social pressures have also become victims of religious pressures in the church. Consequently, most members have opted to succumb to social pressures by remaining non-church members. The idea that the Catholic religion is unreligious has underpinned the migration of the Latin Americans into the protestant denominations. Lienas (2013, Para. 2), A Fox News writer, noted the diminishing population of Latinos in the Catholic Church and an increasing Latin population in the protestant church. Between the year 2008 and 2012, the population of Latinos in the Catholic Church shrunk from 58% to 54% while an increase from 27% to 28% was noted in the protestant churches. The statistics indicate that there is a massive outflow of the Latin Americans from the Catholic Church to the Protestant churches. To respond to this trend, a Father Reese, a Catholic priest stated that “we are boring” as the reason why this kind of trend is emerging (Para. 4). He recognized the need for the church to entice and attract people into the church by a form of worship that conforms to the demand of the 21st century. The protestant churches have put this in mind and have developed relevant programs and this is the reason why these denominations are attracting more people in their religious systems. Among the suggestion that were advanced is that the catholic Church should develop better music, children's programs and a sense of community to prevent the influx of their believers. In a nutshell, the Catholic Church has lost its followers for failing to meet the standards of a typical 21st century religious system. Additionally, scandals in the US Catholic Church have had a great impact on the credibility of the church. Numerous scandals that have surfaced in the Catholic Church have made many of the followers to lose faith in the credibility of the church and its leadership. A survey conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (2004) revealed that US has been a black spot for sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by Catholic clergy. In the period between 1950 and 2002, over 4, 392 priests had been identified as perpetrators of over 6,700 sexual abuse cases in the US. These statistics have raised concerns on the credibility of the church as most people criticize the church for exhibiting the highest level of hypocrisy. In Protestant churches where leaders are allowed to marry, the cases of sexual abuse are minimal. The impact of this is that more people have regarded the Protestant churches as more religious than the Catholic Church opting to move in that direction. This bad reputation has also prevented people from other churches from joining this church. The fact that 80% of these crimes occur in the USA, it becomes clear that the impact is severe in this region of the world. In short, scandals in the Roman Catholic Church in US have seen more people move out and prevented new worshipers from joining in their believe. Additionally, the growth of the Catholic Church has been undermined by the small relative ratio active priests to the church members. Sullins (2000, P. 2) is one of the researchers who delved into the reduce priest ration in the US that has been taken for granted for a long time in the history of the church. Sullins noted that in 1966, one active priest in US was assigned a congregation of 1100 members. Surprisingly, in 2000, this figured has raised to one priest for every 2200 church members. The ration of the priests to the worshipers had halved within this period and the projections indicate that this ration was expected to decline even further. A small priest to believers ration points out that it will be impossible for the church to sufficiently provide religious service for its members. The shortage of priest has become a crisis that has a long term impact on the development of the Catholic Church. Sullins (2013) pointed out to various reasons why the Catholic Church is suffering from a deficit of priests. One reason is because the social pressures are affecting not only the congregation but also the priests (p. 20). As the society becomes more immoral, more people are less attracted to religion and hence the enrollment for theological classes has declined. In addition, more priests are quitting priest hood to form new churches where marriage is allowed for church clergy. Thirdly, the scandals that are facing the Catholic Priest in US have generated a negative attitude on this vocation. Most youths see the priesthood as a source of scorn and a channel to a more sinful life. Consequently, most youths will avoid priesthood at all cost opting to take a different path in their life. Given that the vocation of priesthood is optional and marriage is the other alternative, more youths find their way to marriage without having to lose their faith. Consequently, the number of priests in the US is rendering service delivery a challenge for the Catholic Church. A decline in the number of priests has adverse consequences for the church population. First, the US Catholic Church has been forced to close over 1000 churches due to the shortage of priest to serve these institutions (Week, 2010, Para. 1). The implication of this is that more members will find their way into other churches that exist within their locality. Alternatively, some members will end up losing their faith and become non-worshippers. All in all, the church will lose a good portion of its members due to this shortage. Secondly, the churches will be more congested as more people crowd in churches where the priests are available. With the current proliferation of more evangelizing institutions, people will prefer to attend services in less congested places. Finally, it is indisputable that the efficiency of service delivery will be affected in the long run. Failing to nourish the Christians in church services affects the morale of the members negatively reducing their loyalty to the system. The cumulative impact of the consequences of the shortage of priests in the Catholic Church is a reduction in the believers. The presumed notion that the Catholic Church has monopolized the religious sphere in America is the reason why its leaders have not adequately instituted reforms. In the 19th century, there were less that 100 denominations and the Catholic Church was among the most powerful churches in the US. However, the number of churches today has increased considerably and more than 300 fully developed denominations are available to the public (Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2013). In the 21st century, the churches are analogized to the business environment that is competitive requiring modest practices to win loyalty from customers. The fact that the Catholic Church has dominant seems to be the reason why the church continues to expect an uninterrupted inflow of members. However, people have more options to weigh and the end up choosing denominations that they feel more relevant and satisfying. As a result, the Catholic Church has lost loyalty as more members look for better churches to fulfill their spiritual needs. In conclusion, the inability of the Catholic Church in US to remain dynamic and incorporate changes in social structures has immensely contributed to the population crisis it is suffering today. Social issues such as abortion and marriage related issues have become hot issues that have influenced the people’s attitude towards the Catholic Church. As the church maintains a firm ground without taking care of the social needs of its congregation, more people have found their way out to more accommodating churches. Victims of social pressures feel guilty to rejoin the Catholic Church as they cannot participate fully in the religious rites. As such, they end up not attending services becoming unreligious people in the society. Many scandals by priests have received criticism from the congregation and more people are unwilling to join the priesthood. The cumulative impact is that the church has fewer members, fewer priests and more churches continue to be closed. The situation is becoming worse as the people have more denominations to choose from depending on their spiritual needs. In essence, the Catholic Church is bound to experience more population crisis unless they reform their religious structures and believes to conform to the social demands of the people in the 21st century. Bibliography Hartford Institute Religious Research, (2013). Fast Facts about America Religion. Available From: < http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html#numcong> John Jay College of Criminal Justice, (2004). The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950–2002, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Kissling, F., (2013), 'Pope Francis's Big Tent', Nation, 297, 15, pp. 5-6, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost. Llenas, B., (2013). US Latino catholic Population Shrinking, Less Religious than Booming Protestant Faiths. Available from < http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2013/ 02/26/us-latino-catholic-population-shrinking-less-religious-than-booming-protestant/> Pullella, P., (2013). Pope Francis Gives Candid Speech on ‘Exodus’ of Followers from the Catholic Church. Available from :< http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis--speech-exodus-catholic-church-2013-7> Schoenherr, R. A. (2004). Goodbye father: the celibate male priesthood and the future of the Catholic Church. New York, Oxford University Press. Sullins, P., (2000). Empty Pews and Empty Altars: A reconsideration of the Catholic Priest Shortage. Catholic University of America. Available from: < http://faculty .cua.edu/sullins/published%20articles/pshort.pdf> The Week, (2010). Catholic in Crisis. Available from: < http://theweek.com/article/index /202388/catholics-in-crisis> United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, (2013). Divorce: How Does the Church View Divorce? Available from :< http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and- family/marriage/divorce/> Read More