About

Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, and Catholic apologist (did you know this about him?) concluded “there exist three basic types of people: Those who seek God and find him, those who are seeking God but have not yet found him, and those who neither seek nor find.” What holds back most people from seeking God or who are seeking God but have yet to find Him, is their inability to come to terms about their sin. They may be filled with guilt; they may be bitter of those who have done them wrong; they be enjoying their current sins too much to give them up. They may also be suffering from acedia - apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins), or spiritual or mental sloth. Many people who experience a form of depression or anxiety are more likely suffering from acedia.

However, there's a larger issue around all this. Since just before Vatican II, the Catholic laity have been poorly catechized!

Among Catholics:

Only 25% of baptized Catholics attend Mass on Sunday. That's 75% of baptized Catholics DO NOT attend Mass.
Only 3 out of 10 believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Only 13% believe that contraception is morally wrong.
66% of Catholics support homosexual "so-called" marriage.
51% believe that abortion should be legal in most circumstance.

Nationally:

The number of annual baptisms declined by 2,021,627 (-13%) in 2020 compared to 2013.
The number of marriages declined by 702,246 (-27%).
Confirmations and first communions also dropped (-12% and -13%, respectively).
Daily prayer declined from 59% to 51% from 2012 to 2020-21. Unlike Mass attendance, one can pray at home and this should not have been affected by the pandemic.
The number of diocesan priests is down 8%.
There are 27% fewer sisters (-13,581), 19% fewer brothers (-802), and 15% fewer religious priests (-1,775).
The largest generation of Catholics, currently, are Millennials (19.8 million) followed by Generation X (18.3 million), and then Baby Boomers (15.8 million). A total of 33.7 million Catholic adults are married or widowed, 8.2 million are divorced or separated, and 15.0 million have never married (of which 11.4 million are Millennials).
There are 16.2 million Catholic Democrats compared to 12.4 million Republicans. Yet, there are more Catholic conservatives than liberals (19.3 million compared to 13.7 million). Most adult Catholics are not affiliated with a political party (25.9 million) and 23.9 million consider themselves to be “middle of the road” when it comes to political ideology.

We must re-catechize ourselves!

The best way to learn the Catholic faith is to defend it; conversely, the best way to defend the Catholic faith is to know it. Defending the Catholic faith is known as apologetics.

First Coast Catholic Alliance

What is the Catholic Church facing today?