Success in this life only - The neglect of Eternal Life

On this blog so far the moral evils of abortion, contraception, divorce and the decline of Mass attendance on Sundays and holy days of obligation have been highlighted. The question of why this is has been implied if not asked directly. I believe the answer is in the absorbing into our life styles and our thinking secularism; the atheism of the age.

The Reasons for Low Sunday Mass Attendance - ( 29% )

1.- The effect that the clergy sex abuse scandals have had on the faith of our people. The lack of justice in adjudicating the cases. The protection of offending clergy and the lack of concern for the victims as well as the innocent priests and laity who were in the parishes where these crimes took place. Justice has still not been achieved because those who covered up the offences have not been dealt with.

Low Mass Attendace on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Why?

In the diocese that I belong to and many others in our country the Mass attendance on Sunday is twenty nine percent. Seventy one percent of registered catholics do not go to Church on Sunday. On holy days the figure is seven and a half percent. In 1995 the late John Cardinal O'Connor Archbishop of New York wrote a book titled, "A moment of grace", based on the Catechism of the Catholis Church. On pages 242 -243 he says, "We are bound under pain of mortal sin when it is humanly possible for us to get to Mass on Sunday". Cardinal O'Connor states the following,"The Catechism tells us about the precepts of the Church. As with so many things other things, many people seem to believe that what we call the precepts of the Church went out the window with the Second Vatican Council. Not at all. The Catechism spells them out for us."