In an article on
insidecatholic.com today, OSV Daily Take's own Russell Shaw looks at polarization within the Catholic Church in the United States. Using President Obama and the recent Notre Dame controversy as a starting point, he dissects the issue at the heart of polarization:
"But let's be realistic. On the whole, the polarization of American Catholics isn't a split among practicing members of the Church.
"According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, only 23 percent of Catholic adults in the United States now attend Mass every Sunday -- which is to say 77 percent do not. Moreover, reports CARA, 75 percent receive the Sacrament of Penance -- confess their sins, that is -- less than once a year or never.
"This isn't American Catholicism at some point in an imagined future -- it's a snapshot of where we are now: three out of four adults seldom or never participating in the central religious acts of their Church, while only one in four does. Here's the real polarization of American Catholics.
"In the Notre Dame dust-up, 56 percent of Catholics who don't attend weekly Mass thought the university did the right thing by honoring Obama, but only 37 percent of the weekly Mass-attenders agreed. More polarization. Instead of criticizing the university's critics, bishops would do well to address this pervasive crisis at its roots, while at the same time considering the possibility that the views of people who go to Mass every week are the sensus fidelium at work."
Read the entire article by clicking
HERE.
