Topic: Decline in the Catholic faith

Thesis: The Catholic faith values righteousness and forgiveness, but in recent decades, both values have not been upheld.  As a result, people have lost their faith, and the Catholic community is experiencing the repercussions of not upholding these values.  This shift has occurred worldwide, and I have experienced it firsthand, as I have grown up as a member of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  

Shift- Decline by the numbers:

• Transition: As I grew up, my family went to Church every Sunday, and I attended CCD Class and Children’s Choir every Monday night.  Over the years though, the attendance seemed to dwindle; there would be days that I would look around and wonder, “Where is everybody?”
• Information:
  • Diocese of Pittsburgh Sunday Mass attendance (https://www.pittsburghcatholic.org/columns/peering-into-the-future-55850917):
    • 2000: 250,000
      • Year I was born / when I started going to Church*
    • 2016: 150,000
  • Part of a larger movement that began before I was born – Diocese of Pittsburgh membership (https://www.pittsburghcatholic.org/columns/peering-into-the-future-55850917):
    • 1960: 1 million
    • 2018: 630,379
  • This decline has paralleled a decline in the priesthood (https://www.pittsburghcatholic.org/News/Parish-groupings-proposed–33471668)
    • 2018: 210 priests (44 exceeding retirement age of 70 and another 42 will exceed 70 in the next 5 years)
      • 2025: Projected to be 112 priests
        • As a result, the Bishop has enacted “On Mission for the Church Alive” since there are not enough priests and to consolidate the congregations to have fuller Mass celebrations
          • Proposal: 188 parishes (225 buildings) → 49 groupings
  • Catholic education used to be a huge aspect of the Catholic community – Nationwide enrollment (https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/01/25/era-parochial-school-over-meet-catholic-educators-searching-whats-next):
    • 1960: 5.2 million
    • 2019: 1.8 million

Possible Cause of Shift- Sexual assault scandal within the Catholic Church

• Transition: Evidently, there has been a drastic change, but why?  What sparked this decline? Well, in the same time frame that the numbers have dwindled, sexual abuse scandals throughout the Catholic Church have been uncovered worldwide, even in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
• Information:
  • The accusations of Church officials committing sexual assault date back to the 1950s
    • However, it was not until the 1980s that these cases received significant attention in the United States, and by 2000s, these scandals were a major worldwide story. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44209971)
      • Ever since, serious investigations, for assault and cover-ups, have been pursued against the Catholic Church, and these investigations are still ongoing.
  • Specifically within the Diocese of Pittsburgh, in 2018, Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a two-year grand jury investigation into sexual abuse/neglecting these crime in the Catholic Church (https://www.wpxi.com/news/top-stories/pittsburgh-greensburg-diocese-included-in-report-that-names-300-alleged-predator-priests/812777646)
    • It included 301 priests across 6 dioceses in Western Pennsylvania, and 99 of these offenders were from the Diocese of Pittsburgh.   The report also stated that there were at least 1,000 child victims and are assuming that there were even more that have yet to be uncovered.  The report asserted that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, former bishop of Pittsburgh, and Bishop David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh partook in covering up these offenses. 
      • I can attest to the wave of somber that this report sent over the Pittsburgh Catholic community.  All priests were required to read a letter written by Bishop David Zubik in response to the report.  As I sat in the congregation and listened to the priest talk, there was sadness and frustration in his voice.  
        • Sadness in that the Catholic Church has experienced such a tragedy in faith
        • Frustration in that younger priests of today are dealing with the repercussions of actions that they took no part in
•  Shortly thereafter, a Catholic high school in the suburbs of Pittsburgh shortened its name from “Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic” to merely “North Catholic”

Inferences- 

• As people have become knowledgeable about the sexual assault scandals of the 20th century, people are taken back by the investigations.  This news causes them to question their faith since priests and other Church officials are supposed to model how to live a holy and righteous life.  The actions of some of the people within these positions have countered everything that they should stand for. This has shed a negative light on the hierarchy of the Church as a whole.  People of the Church have lost trust in their officials. As a result, they do not have faith in those running the Church, and subsequently, they no longer have faith in Catholicism.
• These accusations have turned people away from entering the priesthood as well.  Young men don’t want to enter into an order that has faced so much controversy and continues to do so today.  As more victims come forward, today’s priests and future ones as well will be responsible for dealing with crimes that they did not commit.
• What above forgiveness?  The Catholic faith is rooted in forgiveness, but since the extent of these actions was so severe across the institution, people have had a hard time looking past these scandals and reuniting in their faith with the priests who are striving to reignite the faith in their communities.