The devil does not hassle those who are doing his work
for him; he focuses his tricks on those who are doing good.
So when the Church comes under attack or has difficult
times it is probably because the Church is actually doing
her work in a good way. Such were my thoughts when
both The Washington Post and The Washington Times
recently ran lead stories about a new poll that indicated
many Catholics are leaving the Church, often to join
evangelical denominations. The articles were particularly
interesting for what they did not say. There was no
mention of how many of the erstwhile Catholics had been
regularly attending Mass on Sundays and Days of
Obligation, (nor how many regularly made use of the
Sacrament of Confession), before they left the Church. It
would also be interesting to know how many of the “former”
Catholics were in second marriages outside the Church
because they would not seek an annulment for their first
marriage, or having sought one were denied. Other
questions that were not addressed were how many of
these people practice contraception, or are living active
homosexual life-styles and most important, how many of
them believed in the Eucharist. The new poll probably did
not address any of those issues.
About ten or twelve years ago Time magazine ran an
article on religion in the United States which showed the
Catholic Church among the fast growing denominations. I
forget just how large it said the Catholic Church was but I
think it was about sixty million. The recent poll put the
number of Catholics at fifty-nine million. But in either case,
there are still the above-mentioned questions that need to
be answered before we get a realistic picture. Many critics
of the Church like to estimate that only 20% of those who
identify themselves as Catholic believe and abide by the
core teachings of the Church (particularly with regard to
contraception, abortion, etc.). Now, 20% of 59 million is
almost 12 million, and that is still larger than other single
Christian denominations!
Any time a Catholic leaves the Church, for whatever
reason, it is a tragedy. As a priest I sometimes have
people come up to me to enthusiastically inform me that
they used to be Catholic. One priest I know responds to
such people with the question, “Oh, what sin did you not
want to give up?” I take a somewhat different approach
and ask if they ever truly believed in the Eucharist. A
profession of Faith and a good confession will rehabilitate
any “former” Catholic, and we should all fervently pray for
all who have left the Church to come Home. At the same
time when we read polls of dropping numbers, or criticism
and attacks on the Faith we should see them for what they
really are – signs of desperation on the part of the enemy.