Photo ~ Disgraced former Canadian Catholic Bishop Raymond Lahey, 71, faces a minimum of one year in prison and could receive up to 10 years for child porn on his computer. The case was especially shocking to Canadians because Lahey had overseen a multimillion dollar settlement for clerical sexual abuse victims in his diocese only a month earlier.

The London (Ontario) Diocese: Its Perilous Condition

In an unusually frank letter to churches and parishioners of London Diocese, Roman Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro has described the parlous condition of the Church. The Bishop’s letter summarizes findings in a Diocesan Report dealing with attendance at Mass, financial and personnel issues, and demographic projections. Herewith, a brief summary.

Mass Attendance: In decline. Of the 450,000 Catholics registered in the London Diocese, less than 14% regularly attend Mass. In 1975, there were 171 parishes to attend; today there are 120.

Priests: In 1991, 178 priests served the Diocese; today about 100. By 2025, a projected 73, many of them “missionary priests” from abroad.

Sacramental Participation: Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation – all down. Church marriages way down. Church funerals declining. Personal confession, almost non-existent.

Finance: Parish donations up 15% since 1994 (less than the rate of inflation), but the trendline is down.

Ecclesiastical bureaucracy: Up. In 1995 parish support service staff numbered 462; today 513. In numbers the apparatchiks multiply while the worshippers dwindle.

The basic truth is that the Roman Catholic Church is, or should be, at war with almost everything that passes for contemporary “culture”.

Modernity is an abomination, a daily disgrace to a Judeo-Christian heritage whose legatees we are, and the Church needs to challenge our culture at every turn. This is a truth which, it seems to me, Pope Benedict XVl understands well, and his Canadian Bishops, for the most part, do not.

The full article can be read at Catholic Insight.

St. Jerome