The Catholic diocese in Trenton, N. J., wanted to find out why some parishioners stopped attending Mass, so it hired Villanova University researchers to conduct “exit interviews” with 298 lapsed parishioners.
The reasons people quit ranged from the personal (“the pastor who crowned himself king and looks down on all”) to the political (“eliminate the extreme conservative haranguing”) to the doctrinal (“don’t spend so much time on issues like homosexuality and birth control”), according to a story in The Star-Ledger of Newark.
In addition, the respondents didn’t like the church’s handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal and were upset that divorced and remarried Catholics are unwelcome at Mass.
So the real question is
where is this Catholic church that talks about birth control and homosexuality!?! LOL! This 30ish sometimes
staching male who drinks and smokes to much wants to join!
The other answers not mentioned in the article; "More giant puppets", "Two words,
liturgical dancers" and "My other church is Planned Parenthood."
1 comment:
One wonders how the researchers conducted ‘exit interviews’ with people who don’t attend Mass…?
Regardless… The sexual scandal has been a boon to lapsed Catholics. It gives them ‘cover’ for being lapsed. It becomes a convenient excuse for not attending Mass and is even advanced in a “holier than thou” manner: “See, the church is corrupt and I won’t have anything to do with it, suckers!” As if Judas’ betrayal was an excuse for the Eleven to abandon ship!
That people abandon the Faith because of Doctrine is hardly new. People abandoned Our Lord because of His “hard sayings”. Should we expect better?
What is lost on the lapsed is that Faith is a personal commitment and a gift, which can be easily lost. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does, whether Father “X” or Bishop “Y” are saintly and faithful men or rank sinners. I won’t have to answer for them…but I will have to answer for ME!
We were given the Faith, not due to our merits, but as a free gift from God. If we don’t nourish and cherish it, we can lose it. And if we lose it, that is not smart. We may think we are the smart ones, but in reality we are the goats. And we know what Our Lord said about the goats…
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