Sandro Magister looks at the poor state of Catholicism in Italy where Pope Francis is Primate:
The Church “does not have doors”, and therefore everyone can come in, but truly “everyone, everyone, everyone, without any exclusion.” This is the message on which Pope Francis insisted most during his travel to Lisbon, in the run-up to a synod that – in its “Instrumentum laboris” – puts at the top of the list of those invited to enter “the divorced and remarried, people in polygamous marriages, or LGBTQ+ Catholics.”
But meanwhile in Italy, where Francis is bishop of Rome and primate, the churches are emptying out. An in-depth survey conducted for the magazine “Il Timone” by Euromedia Research has determined that today only 58.4 percent of Italian citizens over the age of 18 identify themselves as “Catholics,” as opposed to the 37 percent who are “non-believers.” And those who go to Mass on Sundays are just 13.8 percent of the population, mostly over 45, with even lower numbers in Lombardy and Veneto, the regions that have been the historic stronghold of the Italian “Catholic world.”
Not only that. Even among “practicing” Catholics, those who go to Mass once or more a month, just one out of three recognizes in the Eucharist “the real body of Christ,” while the others reduce it to a vague “symbol” or a “commemoration of the bread of the last supper.” And also just one in three are those who go to confession at least once a year, still convinced that it is a sacrament for the “remission of sins.” It comes as no surprise that the Benedictine theologian Elmar Salmann should have said in a June 14 interview with “L’Osservatore Romano” that even more concerning for him than the number of the faithful is the decline of sacramental practice, which “is about to go under.”
A decline that is accompanied by a conspicuous yielding to the “spirit of the time” in the fields of doctrine and morality. 43.8 percent of practicing Catholics consider abortion a right, 41.6 percent believe it is right to allow homosexual marriages, 61.8 percent deny that divorce is a sin, 71.6 percent approve contraception. A certain resistance is seen only with regard to the surrogate womb, with two thirds of the practicing opposed.
But if this is the reality of the facts, what could be the effect of the persistent invitation to welcome into the Church “everyone, everyone, everyone,” that is, even none other than “the divorced and remarried, people in polygamous marriages, or LGBTQ+ Catholics,” who according to what the Church has always taught “cannot receive all the sacraments?”
Go here to read the rest. While Catholicism is dissolving about him, Pope Francis wages war against “rigorists” and traditional Catholics. Pope Francis is not just a “blind guide”, he is a malign guide.
While the Church may not have doors, it would appear we are fast approaching the object of Groucho Marx’s dictum of organizational acceptance.
The pope probably thinks some silliness like accepting everyone, regardless of their adherence to the actual teachings of the faith, will somehow gain new members to offset the losses.
People will tell me, “well there have been worse popes”. It gives me little consolation that Frank I is in the top 300. We need a top ten performer NOW. We need a conclave not a Synod. His goal appears to recreate the Chinese catholic way of life everywhere.
Italy’s declining Church attendance precedes this Pope. He is just not helping the cause.
Italy has had a decline in birth rate for a while now (1.25 children per female) and immigration (particularly illegal immigration) from non-Christian countries has had a major impact on the countries once uniform cultural fabric.
The past traditions of Italian women keeping house, upholding traditional values, praying the Rosary, devoting their time to family and community are todays Nonna’s and are a dying breed in Italy. Sadly so.
The other thing is that Italy has always been a country of contradictions- for example, the Mafia and Catholic tradition go hand in hand. But today this existence of contradictions is seen where public reverence for Italian Saints such as Padre Pio sit along side support for feminist causes, contraception and a modern way of living.
Catholics in Italy have a political allegiance that is all over the place- Catholic will vote for parties which are ultra right-wing whilst others support socialists parties bordering on Communism.
Italy has become very much a secular, individualistic and materialistic country.
But although Catholicism is still very much culturally ingrained in the countries psyche, it is akin to that of secular Jews, in which many Italian Catholics still partake in Catholic sacraments (baptism weddings etc) as a way of fulfilling traditional customs and nothing more. Infact the become much like American Italians (I know I am generalising here because many Italian Americans are very much Faithful Catholics), who have maintained the traditions but have lost the understanding behind the Sacraments.
It’s a real pity seeing a country such as Italy with a once strong Catholic heritage, because the young who are driving this, will not be young forever and one day they will look back and ask themselves “What has happened to Italy?” Well they forgot God, and their Christian heritage- that’s what’s happened to Italy.
Dave, as has been said here before, the Borgias were lots of things but even they were not heretical.
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We could learn a great deal from the Devotio Moderna. (Gerhard Groote, Thomas AKempis et al.) In the 14th and 15th centuries, there was little stability as the Renaissance episcopacy was the norm. Western Europe is a product of the Reformation, Napoleonic wars, Revolutions of 1848 and 1968. Serial monogamy among married persons. Nothing matters and the children know it.