Wake Up!
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Jesus tells a parable to the Jewish leaders about a vineyard owner who leased his vineyard to tenants who took their role as caretakers for granted. They abused the servants sent by the landowner and when the landowner sent his son, the tenants killed him. The parable is meant to convict the Jews and accuse them of taking their God-given mission for granted.
The parable has significance for our present day. Because like the Jews of old, Catholics can also take the gifts given by God for granted. Jesus established the Church, under the leadership of St. Peter to be the “pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15) and sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Church to all truth (see Jn 16:13). He gave the Church the Sacraments to connect believers with divine grace; to spiritually nourish and strengthen them and to forgive their sins (Jn 20:23). Yet many Catholics ignore the gift of their Catholic faith and pay little attention to the moral teachings of the Church that Christ established to teach in His name.
In 1970, there were 3.5 million adults in the U.S. that identified as ex-Catholics, in 2019 that number grew to 29.4 million and today is likely larger. In 1970 there were 3.4 million elementary-age children in Catholic schools, today that number is about 1.6 million. The number of infant baptisms has been cut in half since 1970. Catholic marriages have dropped to 138,000 per year in 2019 compared to 426,000 in 1970. In 1970 55% of Catholics attended Mass weekly. In 2019, prior to Covid-19, that number had dipped to 21.1%. Some suggest that post-Covid that number is even lower.
The Church’s age-old teachings about marriage, sexual abstinence before marriage, artificial contraception and respect for life are regularly ignored. Many, even some who send their children to Catholic school, regularly miss Sunday Mass to attend sporting events or other secular activities. Catholic politicians proudly take political stands in opposition to the teaching of the Church in which they claim membership. Priests fail to teach the truth and worse, some of them commit heinous acts in violation of all that the Church teaches.
Let’s pray that more Catholics wake up and stop taking the gift of their faith for granted. Jesus clearly teaches that the road to destruction is wide and well-traveled and many will go down it (Mt 7:13). Let’s take our God-given mission seriously, so we don’t lose out on the Kingdom He has promised.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
