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Hi Mike,
You said:
With all the Middle East turmoil,
it seems like everywhere you turn, a lot of people
are converting to the Muslim faith.
This is extremely sad for several reasons.
First, in Muslim tradition, Muhammad lived from c. 570 – June 8, 632 — more than 540 years after Jesus' glorious Ascension into Heaven. Though he is viewed as the last in a series of prophets, unlike Jesus, Muhammad was only a man.
Muhammad died and unlike Jesus, never rose from the dead and never promised salvation and the forgiveness of sins for all people. Muhammad's reported revelations that he believed to be from God were conveyed to him through an archangel. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his companions.
Similar to Protestant congregations, Islam is founded on a mere man, unlike the Catholic faith which Jesus, the God-Man, historically founded on St. Peter and his successors.
Although Protestant congregations have this one similarity with Islam, there are far more things Protestant congregations have in common with the Catholic Church than Islam — the first and most important is having a valid Trinitarian baptism.
Another reason this is sad is because of the big difference between Catholic and Islamic theology. Catholic theology is based on a personal, loving relationship between God, the Father and his children, us, through Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. The concept of a Loving Father who cares for his children is blasphemous in Islamic theology, which sees Allah as the only Master and others as slaves of Allah.
As to the state of Christianity, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East have all struggled with,
or seen a decline in, Christianity [and/or] Christian values. In some places,
Christian principles are banned completely and religious freedoms are suppressed
as in:
- Communist China
- Communist Russia, and
- Communist North Korea
Where Christianity is allowed, as in Eastern Europe and America, we have
struggled but for different reasons. It's a two-fold problem:
- We have a hard time sharing the Good News of Jesus and his Gospel
because of an
anti-religious mass media culture centered around organizations
like Media Matters for America, especially against the Catholic
Church. Organizations like these don't like the Church and Her values,
because believing in the Church's values would require them
to change
their lifestyles and corporate practices.
The second reason we struggle is more of an internal problem.
Paraphrasing our Holy Father:
When the
many graces from our Sunday Mass attendance are not reflected throughout
the work week, we become easily persuaded by a secular, materialistic, money,
money, money mind set.
- The courage to speak
- the courage to put in a strong Christian work week
- the courage to proclaim the Gospel
comes about only by a strong personal prayer life among the Christian
faithful in America as well as in the Church.
When this is
missing, we are persuaded more easily by the demonic spirits and an uncatechized culture to accept
the cultural norm that states:
- Since everyone is doing it
- since everyone is believing it, and
- since
everyone is saying it
it must be right.
This is poisonous thinking.
As far as our membership, I created a demographics web page a few years
ago based on the 2007 Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Almanac.
I think you will find it very interesting.
Our 2006 AskACatholic.com Catholic Demographics page
As of this reply, April 2008, to the best of my knowledge there are about
- 1.2 to 1.25 billion Catholics worldwide and
- 25% of the American population
are baptized Catholics representing about 65 million to 70 million
Catholics.
Roughly 1 out of every 4 Americans is a Catholic.
That said, we should be having a stronger influence on
modern American culture and political life.
I believe it is because of a lack:
- of catechesis and evangelization
You can't share a faith you were never taught, or more likely were never taught correctly, and you won't be motived to spread the Gospel unless you have been evangelized, meaning developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- of a personal prayer life among:
- lay parishioners and their families
- among priests
- among bishops, and
- among the Cardinals of the Church.
The lack of a prayer life or living a correct sacramental life leads to a lack of courage to stand up for what the Catholic Church believes.
You said:
- Are Catholics now becoming the
minority?
Over the next few years if we:
- continue to dumb down CCD classes with poor instruction and
- continue to devalue traditional marriage and view same-sex unions as an equal to traditional marriage within our local communities ...
we will logically destroy ourselves as a Christian society in the United States with fewer Catholic Christians practicing Catholic values. When Catholics throw traditional family values out the window for self-pleasuring at all costs, procreation, which is what we naturally do as humans, will not be valued by society as a means to bring forth the next generation and will result in a bunch of elder hedonists with no one to take care of them.
This can change if more Catholics
take their faith seriously by developing a strong personal/family prayer
life. Being Catholic means believing and practicing everything the Church teaches — not
just what you want to believe or practice.
The concept of a personal faith must be resisted. These are the exact words
of Pope Benedict XVI in his address to the American bishops.
Catholics who don't practice what they believe can call themselves catholic all they want to, but their actions scandalize the Church Jesus
founded on St. Peter and His Successors. They are no different then our
separated Protestant brethren with one exception: many of our separated
brethren are sincere Christians.
For the practicing Catholic it's a win-win. Our example will either persuade
others to follow us or we will become a minority which may lead to holy
martyrdom for the faith as it did for the very first Christians.
Hope this helps,
Mike
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