Dear John:

You are being very presumptive to give such specific percentages, which you cannot know about your own parish without scientific surveys, let alone to extrapolate that out to "every" congregation. You simply cannot know this. Please moderate your observations in less dramatic and more reasonable ways. Such excessive judgment is really a form of the sin of rash judgment. You can make some observations about this topic without the sin of rash judgment.

With that said, I understand what you are feeling. Actual studies have shown, as well as personal observations, that communion lines are long, and confession lines are short in many parishes (but we cannot place percentages on that without objective data).

It is not possible to answer any of your questions, however, because neither you nor I know the hearts of the people or the priests. We cannot judge individuals. Only broad and general suggestions, therefore, can be made as to why this phenomena is happening.

This really requires a formal sociological study, but I think I can identify some general culture trends:

1) The loss of a sense of sin. Today's generations seem to have lost any sense of sinfulness. Many just do not see why something is a sin, and will disagree with the Church about what constitutes sin. This is especially the case with sexual sins, in particular the sins of concubinage (living together as a married couple when not married), invalid marriages (marriages not within the Church, blessed by the Church, or regularized by the Church, contraception, fornication, and masturbation. But, even adultery does not seem to have the stigma of sin that it once had.

2) The loss of a sense of the consequences of sin. Many people just no longer believe in hell, or they do not believe they will go to hell because they are "basically good people."

3) The loss of a sense of who God is. Many people think of God, and especially Jesus, as more of a sixties flower child and cannot believe that God's love could send anyone to hell, execpt for the most evil persons, or that God would put such rules in place to ruin one's fun.

4) An increase in hedonism. We live in a world that craves pleasure and will seek it out. For pleasure-sake nothing can get in the way, including God. We have become animals enslaved to our passions and thus have ceased to be truly human.

5) Along with hedonism come its sisters, Selfishness and Pride. We want what we want when we want it. If God does not provide that then many abandon God for their own selfish pursuits.

We have abandoned the Great Commandment to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. Part of the reason for that is that we no longer love self. Pride, selfishness, hedonism are all symptoms of self-loathing.

6) The natural consequence of all of the above, but especially #4 and $5, is the abandonment of virtue. This is seen in the decline of the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy (To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked; Shelter the homeless; To visit the sick; Visit the imprisoned; To bury the dead. And To instruct the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To admonish sinners; To bear wrongs patiently; Forgive all injuries; Comfort the sorrowful; To pray for the living and the dead.)

It is also seen by the decline of the Fruit of the Spirit which is (Galatians 5:22-23) "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."

7) Instead, there are growing number of Christian who are failing at virtue and the Fruit of the Spirit. Instead of doing what St. Paul mentions in verse 24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires," more and more Christians are following the works of the flesh, which are: (Galatians 5:19-21) "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

Related to this is the phenomenon of Political correctness that has become the god of this world, and unfortunately the god of many Christians. Truth has become the new hate speech. You can read about notions that have engulfed our world and many of the minds of Christians in the essay, Three Secret Strategies of Satan.

These seven observations of our dying culture I think form the foundation for all that is ill about our society and in our Church. It is the duty of the Bishops and their priests to work against these trends. Unfortunately many priests are just as caught up in this worldly mindset as anyone else.

As our Pope has said that priests are to be holy and pastors of the flock, to care for them, to guard them, to teach them. Those priest and bishops who fail in this task and endanger their flock because of negligence to teach them and to catechize them toward holiness will face the might wrath of God.

(Matthew 18:6) "whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." 

Thus, pray for those priests and bishops. Encourage them to do the right thing. Prayer, not gripping, has the potential to change the hearts of clergy and laity alike.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary