2012-10-04                   John W             John W's previous articles

Unhappy Feet

At Catholica, Brian Coyne and others often write about the 86% of Catholics who no longer go to church in Australia and in many other countries. If you put "86%" into the search engine at the top of Catholica's main page you'll see dozens of links to articles about this topic

Maybe some of the 86% are traditional "backsliders".
But more and more are frontsliders, as in Germany

Last Sunday on this website,  David Timbs mentioned that in the most Catholic part of Germany, Bavaria, 70% of Catholics are reported to have officially left the Church....because they are unhappy with the way things are

86% .....70%.....what this means is that people are voting with their feet

And they're voting with their feet because only their feet are franchised.
Their voices are not listened to

This radio interview with Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland
mentions again and again the problem of the Vatican being unwilling to listen

The lesson of history:  when groups of people are ignored about issues of injustice/wrongdoing etc : they quit or go on strike as a last resort

One of the biggest "strikes" in the history of the Church is called the Reformation

An even bigger strike is now taking place.
86% and 70% are continuing to increase

Does anyone in the Vatican care?

What can ordinary Catholics do?   

Mary McAleese makes the point that the Church is a monarchy, make that an absolute monarchy. Nothing happens unless/until the pope wants it to happen. So, the only way for things to improve in the Church is for Benedict to have either a change of heart .....or a change of address,
and be followed by someone who listens.
May one of these otpions, for the sake of the hemorrhaging Church, happen soon.
For this we pray to the Lord. Lord hear our prayer!

And for this let's continue to pick up some rubbish each day!