That was me whispering to Becca during Mass this morning for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. I was, of course, referring to the average age of the parishioners at Mass who were not either Millettes or Burkes (teacher friends of ours who also are counted as outsiders here). Becca agreed with me. Mid 70s was about right.
You know, demographics can really kick you in the teeth sometimes. Why, didn't China just make further exemptions to their one-child policy earlier in the week because of how it is destroying their economy? Well this ain't no game now is it? Close your mouths. The demographics for Canadian Catholics are about to start kicking us in the teeth.
Almost two years ago a nearby town had its parish shut down. It's not that the town is dying per se. The town has roughly 200 people in it. It still runs fine on farming and logging and such. Why, the town has a school, a hockey rink, a new Co-op, and even a storage garage for motorcycles in the winter. Oh wait, that would be old Catholic church's new function. Heavenly Hosts, meet Harley Davidson.
The point is that a couple of years ago towns of 200 were more or less deemed unable to support (i.e. put bums in the pews) the tiniest of churches. Nowadays I look at a nearby town of around 500 people. The town gets 10-12 people for Sunday Mass. Christmas Eve Mass, what with all the visitors and such, brought in a whopping 20 people. Ok, so 500 town populations will probably start losing their churches in 5-10 years.
Tisdale, where we live, has around 3200 people in it. Yes, perhaps some of the younger crowd was away today on this HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION. We'll grant it's not quite as bad as an average age of 74. Not quite, but almost. Nevertheless, today's average age was around 74, and that's what we're going to work with. Let's say there were 60 people there. If nothing drastic happens, in 10 years from now the average age would be maybe around 79, because many of the 80+ people now will die or be in a nursing home. The number of people at Mass you would figure would be closer to 20-30. That's 20 to 30 people, average age in the high 70s, for a Holy Day of Obligation, in 10 years or so.
In Nipawin, population of the town and surrounding area around 5500, Mass attendance has routinely dropped to between 100-150 for Sunday Mass. Some days the place looks positively bare. Ok, you get my point. Things are bad.
"But hey!" you might say, "there were 3 million young people on the shores of Rio for a World Youth Day Mass!" Wow. That's great! I should go tell the people in the nearby town as they walk to the old church to check in on their motorcycles.
"Or wait!" you might say, "there was a big rocking convention in Ottawa this week in honour of Catholic Christian Outreach's 25th anniversary of ministering to Canadian universities! The place was packed and on fire with youthful enthusiasm for Christ!"
Hey that is great. And I'm not here to knock CCO. They do their thing. Has my experience with them been positively fluff, of the fluffiest variety? Yes. But they do their thing and that's fine. Good people over there at CCO. Talking about how a passage of Scripture made me feel for an advanced university faith study is probably not something I would care to do ever again, but I'm done with that experience and I wish them all the best.
But then something kicked me in the teeth. On my facebook feed I was getting many (facebook) friends who were at this CCO event positively gushing over the talk given by a certain priest. What was his name? Oh yeah, Fr. Thomas Rosica.
If you do not know about Fr. Rosica, let's just say he is, as I less than affectionately refer to him as, the Pope of Canada. All things being considered, he is the most influential Catholic in Canada.
Now I have no idea what he talked about. I will assume it wasn't about lifesitenews.com being the Catholic Taliban. Or of how wonderful ex-priest and known heretic Gregory Baum, the one Msgr. Vincent Foy said has "done more than any person to harm the Church in Canada," is such a model for hope and joy. Probably nothing about a recent lawsuit filed against a Chinese Catholic organization either. Nope. These things must not be talked about at such events.
Regardless, here's the punch line to all of this. As my great philosophy professor Mr. Schintgen would say at the end of each lecture: "Ok, time to bring all of this together..."
The Canadian Church is clearly dying, especially out on the prairies. The root of this death can easily be traced to the extreme disobedience following Vatican II. Perhaps the greatest leader of this disobedience in Canada was Gregory Baum. Gregory Baum is a man who has been praised and admired by the most influential Catholic in Canada, Fr. Rosica. CCO, very much symbolizing the modern young Canadian Catholic, was by and large eating from the hand of Fr. Rosica. And around and around we go.
I sincerely hope that history doesn't repeat itself. Frankly, we're running out of Catholics.
And proverbial teeth.
The combox is closed.