Our Voices

This sounds like something the laity needs!

I have been teaching RCIA and religious education classes for more than 10 years and am appalled at how poorly Catholics are catechized. We are suffering from two generations of lost catechesis. When I mention to long-lived Catholics the things we study in RCIA I am always told how they wish they could get such an education. RCIA folks who are married to Catholics routinely say that their spouses tell them they know way more about the truths and beauty of Catholic faith than they do.

Last Fall at the USCCB’s National Conference Cardinal Dolan asserted , “But a pressing challenge to us it remains . . . to renew the appeal of the Church, and the Catholic conviction that Christ and His Church are one.” I don’t know how we will effectively restore that realization / acceptance of Christ / Church oneness if people don’t come to respect and trust the Church. I don’t know how they will respect and trust the Church if they don’t know what the Church really teaches. I don’t know how they will accept what the Church teaches if they don’t know why the Church really teaches what it does. I don’t know how any of this is accomplished if the true Word doesn’t get out. If the true Word does not get out, how can the Vatican II dream of New Evangelization become reality?

Only 7% of Catholics are actively engaged, 8-25% are passively engaged, 26-50% are passively disengaged and 51-100% are actively disengaged. 30% of those raised Catholic still practice but only half of them participate in the Mass on a given weekend. 38% hold Catholic identity but never participate in a Mass. 32% of those raised Catholic no longer identify themselves as Catholic. The fastest growing religious demographic is “unaffiliated.” 79% of Catholics who “unaffiliate” do so by age 23. If you look at the typical high school Confirmation class at any U.S. Catholic parish this year, within 5 years, on average, 70% of them will no longer be practicing Catholics. Souls are being lost!

The bottom line is that we are, and have been, in a crisis situation and yet where is sense of urgency among Church leadership? Perhaps we are so used to playing defense we unfamiliar with how to go on offense. If any business leader produced statistics like those above they would have been fired a long time ago.

We have an urgent need to get Catholic truth out to the flock so that real evangelization can occur and the trends are reversed. The most effective Catholic media outlet is the pulpit and it is comprehensive throughout the world. The goal of having this effort in place by December (Year A 2014) probably isn’t humanly possible. With God, however, all things are possible and we need the impossible. Having worked through numerous business turnaround situations in my career I know that with the right focus and motivation seemingly impossible things can be accomplished, even without the assurance of the help of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit miracles occur. God Bless our shepherds and God Bless this effort!

I want to be taught! The mind is a terrible gift to waste.

I support this initiative and it is a brilliant idea! I am 42 years old and have been craving for proper catechesis during Mass for a long time. This would be a great aid for parents to pass the faith onto their children, especially since the enrollment in Catholic private schools is falling, and since many Catholic parents have been poorly catechized themselves. So many professed Catholics do not understand their faith and are ill equipped to evangelize. This is very much needed and a great solution. When I heard of this initiative my heart jumped for joy! Thanks be to God!

So glad to see this program introduced on EWTN. I hope it becomes a reality. We desperately need help. I am always amazed of what I hear out of the mouths of fellow Catholics in regard to their personal beliefs. A lot of the time they do not coincide with the Church's teachings, and I think they are not even aware of the teachings or so caught up in the culture that they are being caught up in the Culture of Death. They think the Church is so outdated and needs to catch up with the times. I always think that if they truly knew the Catholic faith, they would see its beauty and God's wisdom behind all the truth that we believe as Catholics. I will be praying for all of you and your efforts in this matter. God Bless.

Angie