Ahhhh... The Fruits Of Vatican II
And bitter fruits they are
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University has some interesting numbers. Here's just a taste;
Total number of priests in the US in 1965 - 58,632.
Total number of priests in the US in 2009 - 40,666.
Total number of nuns in the US in 1965 - 179,954.
Total number of nuns in the US in 2009 - 59,601.
Parishes without a resident priest pastor in the US in 1965 - 549.
Parishes without a resident priest pastor in the US in 2009 - 3,400.
And bitter fruits they are
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University has some interesting numbers. Here's just a taste;
Total number of priests in the US in 2009 - 40,666.
Total number of nuns in the US in 1965 - 179,954.
Total number of nuns in the US in 2009 - 59,601.
Parishes without a resident priest pastor in the US in 1965 - 549.
Parishes without a resident priest pastor in the US in 2009 - 3,400.
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
12:36 AM
6 Comments:
Bleak numbers, indeed, but take hope. See the outstanding, outstanding article by Mary Eberstadt in "First Things" on "Christianity Lite": http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/01/christianity-lite.
Could it be that just maybe, maybe, maybe the tide is finally turning back toward the orthodox and the traditional? Very heartening reporting from Ms. Eberstadt.
Caveman,
I recently found your blog and love it, but I hope I just don't get all the nuance of your thought. Are you blaming Vat. II? The sin in the Catholic Church that brought about a massive rejection of Humanae Vitae was not the result of Vat. II. Vat. II is the cure. SIN has borne the fruit of what we see that is wrong in the Church today. The gay, perverted bishops that swallowed the poison of the 60s sexual revolution and turned the seminaries into homo recruiting centers, all started pre N.O. I HATE the abuses, but they are abuses.
Vat. II is infallible Church teaching. I love it like the Church herself.
.
I forgot to click the email follow-up
Dave,
V2 in and of itself is simply a pastoral council. Very, very little in V2 is dogmatic (binding upon pain of sin). The Dogmatic Constitution of V2, I do believe is the only dogmatic portion of.
The vast majority of it is open to debate.
Here's a posting I did a few years back that may make my position a bit clearer (http://catholic-caveman.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-would-not-want-to-see-people-turn.html)
Hope this helps!!
Thanks for commenting, and keep coming back!
Regarding the last 2 comments:
On the one hand, Vatican II was indeed pastoral. But that doesn't make it optional for Catholics -- at the very least Vatican II requires from Catholics a religious submission of the will and intellect (I'm not saying that anyone here has actually claimed it's optional, but some folks reading these comments might actually think you believe that). At any rate, Pope Benedict XVI (before he became pope) said the following regarding Vatican II:
"It is a necessary task to defend the Second Vatican Council against Msgr. Lefebvre, as valid, and as binding upon the Church. ... [Vatican II is] one part of the unbroken, the unique Tradition of the Church and of her faith." (Cardinal Ratzinger's July 13, 1988 remarks to the Bishops of Chile regarding the Lefebvre situation).
".. it is clear that conciliar decisions are infallible in the sense that I can be confident that here the inheritance of Christ is correctly interpreted" (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Canon of Criticism, Salt of the Earth [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997])
"You may not, however, affirm that the conciliar texts, which are magisterial texts, are incompatible with the Magisterium and with Tradition." (Cardinal Ratzinger letter to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre on July 20, 1983)
MI,
Rest assured that no one is doubting the validity of V2, but the dogmatic pronouncements. If the Council in it's entirety were binding upon pain of sin, then the Council in it's entirety would have been declared as such. But it simply wasn't.
That's exactly why HH Pope Benedict is able to restore Tradition.
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