I often wonder how long the faithful Catholics are expected to put up with the state of laxity in the Church today? What is seen on a weekly basis in the form of poor attendance at Mass on Sundays, the blatant disregard for Church teaching based on the teachings of Christ himself. How can the hypocrisy be stomached?

I know from my side of the pulpit it can be very hard to see this state of affairs. It makes me envision a parish church with ghosts within it. Ghosts being people who don’t believe the whole thing and are therefore just pale shadows of what should be. This isn’t everyone obviously, but how many faithful Catholics use contraception? How many rarely or never go to Confession? How many are not properly married in the eyes of the Church but continue to live like they are and come up the aisle to receive Holy Eucharist anyway?

And how many priests and prelates are well aware of this state of affairs and would rather look away? How many would rather deal with fund raising and parish retention programmes and New Evangelisation programmes which may be or are in actual fact void of the deeper meaning of the Sacraments and how to live them in our daily lives? Where faithful priests, who try to live the teachings of the Church, try to help others do the same, and are often the butt of jokes and derided by other members of the clergy, stand alone in the midst of the mess are rejected or at best face condescending remarks or rejection from the diocese.

Sadly this is the state of affairs and while a lone priest may try to stem the tide, he is standing in the face of a Tsunami of indifferentism and relativism. And rather than being sent to re-evangelise in the parish(es) he is sent to fund-raise to keep parishes afloat that should have been closed years before, his energies wasted in the multi-parish dash to keep the ingress from the life-boats.

Unless there is a rapid turn around in the beliefs of the Catholic faithful to really believe the teachings of Christ and His Church, then the Catholic Church in Canada and many Western countries is heading for extinction. When members stop believing what Christ taught it is only a matter of time before the windows are boarded up. It only takes a few to make this turn about begin, but the priest cannot be the only one in the breach. It may begin with one, but needs many to succeed.