Adjusting to a Time Change: From Christendom to Apostolic
Fr. John Riccardo
January 13, 2021
For a number of years now, there has been a lot of talk in the Church about the need to move from maintenance to mission. A number of archdioceses and dioceses have embarked on efforts with similar but related names. “Retooling for Mission,” “Realigning Resources for Mission,” “Moving to Mission,” and “Unleash the Gospel” are but a few of the names of these efforts.
In a recent conversation with diocesan leaders, we asked, “What makes you think your priests, lay leaders, and parishes are not on mission?” Upon hearing the question, they seemed a bit surprised.
“That’s a good question,” they answered. “I guess because many of the key performance indicators seem to suggest we’re not on mission.”
“Ah,” we said. “Those.”
We in ACTS XXIX call those indicators “an honest assessment” of where we are in the Catholic Church right now. This assessment, to be frank, is abysmal. Take a look at some of these numbers from various CARA, Gallup, and Pew surveys:
30 million Catholics are considering leaving the Church because of the clerical sexual abuse scandal
2 out of 3 Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence
61% of Catholics do not regularly attend weekly Mass
81% of Catholics, ages 21-29, do not regularly attend weekly Mass
45% of Catholics never, ever, receive the Sacrament of Confession
There has been a 54% decrease in Catholic weddings since 2000
There has been a 49% decrease in the number of baptisms since 2000
There has been a 25% decrease in Catholic school enrollment in the past ten years
30% of Catholics don’t believe in hell
56% of Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or most cases
Nearly 60% of Catholics either favor or strongly favor same-sex marriage
85% of Catholics think it’s acceptable for a man and woman to live together as a couple outside of marriage
50% of millennials raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic
Only 7% of millennials raised Catholic still actively practice the faith
79% of former Catholics leave the Church before age 23
The average Catholic household gives $10 per week
And on and on and on. It’s impossible not to admit something is terribly wrong in the Church right now based on metrics like these.
However, we’re not sure these numbers necessarily mean we’re in maintenance mode. In fact, we would argue many pastors and lay staff are working frantically to “unleash the gospel,” or “move to mission” in their parishes. For those parishes, the key question, we argue, is whether or not we’re set up to accomplish the mission?
When we asked those diocesan leaders that question the look on their faces changed dramatically. In a subsequent conversation, one of them acknowledged to us it was as if a lightbulb went off when he heard that.
We would further argue that our structures and strategies in the Church were created for a very different era, an era often called “Christendom.” Christendom refers to a time when the culture at large was more or less shaped by a Christian worldview. Fulton Sheen once wrote, “Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending. We’ve seen it die.” This quote is found in the preface of an exceptional new book entitled From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age. If there’s one book we would encourage everyone in the Church to read in this new year, this is the book. It offers what we consider to be the most profound analysis of the situation in which the Church finds herself today.
The fact that we’ve left a Christendom era, though, isn’t to be nostalgic, nor is it to be despondent or to throw in the towel. The Church has existed in difficult times before, and the Lord Jesus promised to be with us always, and so we need not fear. As the author of Christendom writes,
“When social arrangements and the Church’s influence on the societies she inhabits are relatively stable, relations and strategies may hold good over a long period of time. In an age of change, the Church needs to pay attention to the modes by which she carries on her graced battle to be sure she is not ‘fighting yesterday’s war,’ using strategies that for whatever reason are outmoded and have become ineffective. In a time that could be called a change of the ages, this duty becomes urgent. We are currently living in such a time.”
God has destined us to be alive at this moment, in this era, when so many things are in flux. We both think and believe that one of the most urgent tasks the Church faces is to pray for the wisdom, courage, and unwavering commitment to adopt new mindsets and create new structures and strategies. All so that we can do our best to accomplish the mission Jesus has entrusted to us. Of course, that presumes that we have clarity on that mission.
Next week, we will look at what that mission is.