Ahh depressing.
Now the article correctly points out that is partly due to a pretty much non stop migration of Louisiana residents out of the State that has now entered it's second decade.
How many kids that were raised in Lafayette are now like in places like Houston and Dallas. The migration of rural South Louisiana Catholics out of State has been great too. Also sadly traditional Catholic families in the Catholic parts of the State don't have the big families they used too.
But again some of these was preventable
Louque converted from Catholicism to a non-denominational faith when he was 22 .“I went through confirmation and everything but was never able to get a lot of questions answered,” Louque said. “There is only a handful of people I would call devout Catholics that actually lived what they believed.”
Well let me say I think his circle of friends must have been mighty small. Usually Catholics from the South are pretty devout. But still why could he not his questions answered?
This should be a major wake up call for a coordinated response from all the Louisiana Bishops to bring back Catholics and to bring new Catholics in. Will it happen?
Will at least one Bishop lead the charge on this to partner with the many Louisiana Catholic groups such as the Knights and others? Shall we the Louisiana laity invest in it. We shall see.
Update-
Let me highlight this
Pasquier said the root cause for the priest shortage comes from changing social climate after World War II movement giving people new social causes to participate in besides religion.Catholics found different ways to benefit society like participating in or against the civil rights movement instead of trying to do good to society by joining an order in the church, Pasquier said.“
Today, the reason for the shortage continuing has a lot to do with the sex abuse scandals which perpetuate a distrust of the priesthood,” Pasquier said.
I think that is pretty much nonsense. We have A priest shortage because all these Catholics are involved in the Civil Rights movement and other fronts? How come some Dioceses have a Priest explosion?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Louisiana Has had an 16 Perecent Decrease in Catholics Since 1990
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3 comments:
It is nonsense. We have a priest shortage because we started putting the cart before the horse in preaching social responsibility without defining the faith that is the core of that social responsibility. As far as priests in the 60's joining up to try and change the Church (or whatever they thought they were doing) the fact now is that most who become priests these days are doing it because they understand the faith. In places where that understanding is nourished there are more vocations.
Its not about being relevant ... its about the Truth.
I so so agree
I found the prof's statements on this bizaree
It saddens me very much to know that so many people (especially from Louisiana which is so deeply rooted in Catholic culture) have left the Catholic Church. I am in love with Holy Mother Church and I've never been able to understand how people (including some of my family) could leave the sacraments ...
But I think, to use Cardinal Newman's phraseology, the "Second Spring" is upon us. The dawn is here and the Church is taking back the world even as secularism seems to be destroying it.
Ave Maria! †
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