Do some of today's mainstream Catholic news agencies downplay bad news? If nothing else, some of their headlines appear far too upbeat.
Two recent examples:
(1) A Catholic News Agency article bears the headline: "Millennial Catholics’ interest in religious education a good sign, survey suggests"
However, a more evaluative reading of the article reveals that... [Note: Commentary below added by us]
* About 15% - more than 1 in 10! - of "self-described Catholic Millennials" apparently do not even believe in God ["But without faith it is impossible to please him, for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." (Heb.11:6)]
* About 75% of surveyed Catholics fail to attend Mass "at least once a month" ["It is a mortal sin not to hear Mass on a Sunday or a holyday of obligation unless we are excused for a serious reason." (Baltimore Catechism); Third Commandment: "Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day"] Therefore, objectively speaking, 3/4 or more of these Catholics are - apparently - regularly in a state of mortal sin. ["Faith teaches that the pains of Hell are eternal, and it also warns us that one single (unrepented) mortal sin suffices to condemn a soul forever because of the infinite malice by which it offends an infinite God." (St. Anthony Mary Claret)]
* More than 50% of these (seriously deluded!) 'Catholic Millennials' approve of people practicing more than one religion - which necessarily means they think it is acceptable for people to practice at least one false religion, since the Catholic religion alone is true. ["[H]e scatters and gathers not who gathers not with the Church and with Jesus Christ, and all who fight not jointly with him and with the Church are in very truth contending against God." (Pope Leo XII, "Sapientiae Christianae", 1890 A.D.)] Note: For more on religious indifferentism, click here
* More than 80% of the misguided young 'Catholics' surveyed think morals are "relative" ["Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 Jn. 2:4); "We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit." (1 Jn. 4:6)]
* About 50% of 'Millennial Catholics' believe "people should have different business and personal ethical standards" ["Further, it is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church, but publicly rejecting it; for this would amount to joining together good and evil, and to putting man in conflict with himself; whereas he ought always to be consistent, and never in the least point nor in any condition of life to swerve from Christian virtue." (Pope Leo XIII, "Immortale Dei", 1885)]
* A mere 18% of Catholics surveyed considered being "spiritual" or being "close to God" a long-term life goal - an even lower percentage than non-Catholics! [Remember that the very purpose of life on earth is to "to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next." (Baltimore Catechism)]
* Around 40% of 'Catholic Millennials' fail to oppose the murder of the unborn in the womb, even though abortion is a grave sin ["Those who give drugs causing abortions are murderers themselves, as well as those who receive the poison which kills the fetus." (St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the Church, c. 369 A.D.)]
* Close to 40% of Catholics surveyed find (gravely immoral!) embryonic stem cell research to be "morally acceptable"
* 'Catholic Millennials' were "less likely than their peers to say drug use is morally wrong"
* About 25% of the young Catholics surveyed said divorce was "morally acceptable" ["Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the one who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery." (Our Lord Jesus Christ, Lk. 16:18)]
* Almost 40% of 'Catholic Millennials' surveyed find fornication acceptable ["Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10, emphasis added)]
* More than 35% of surveyed young 'Catholics' find homosexual relations - a serious sin that "cries out to heaven for vengeance" - morally acceptable and around 25% support homosexual 'marriage' ["Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10, emphasis added); "Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." (Jude 1:7]
The minute "crumbs" of good news in the survey - really just items that Catholics should be able to take for granted - seriously pale in comparison with the apparently terrible spiritual state of young Catholics. The real, actual crisis of faith and morals existing among young Catholics today (the subject of much of the article) and the resulting consequences are surely the most newsworthy elements in the piece - not a mere "interest" in religious education. So why settle on that as the story's headline?
(2) A recent Catholic News Service article headline proclaims: "Study: Catholics at Catholic colleges less likely to stray from church"
The article, however, reports that... [Note: Commentary below added by us]
* "[M]any Catholic students at Catholic and public colleges disagree with church teaching" ["He requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in regard to one single point." (Pope Leo XIII, "Satis Cognitum", 1896 A.D.); "If any one does not profess, in accordance with the holy Fathers, properly and truthfully all that has been handed down and taught publicly to the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God, both by the same holy Fathers and the five approved universal councils, to the last detail in word and intention: let him be condemned." (Lateran Council, 649 A.D.)]
* Over 40% of 'Catholic' students at Catholic colleges apparently believe abortion - the murder of the unborn in the womb - should be legal. The article also notes that a "majority of Catholic students leave college disagreeing that abortion should be legal but they number fewer than those who entered with that opinion" - So much for a Catholic education! ["Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize." (Pope John Paul II)]
* About 2/3 of Catholics attending Catholic colleges support homosexual 'marriage' ["You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination." (Lev. 18:22)]
* Close to 15% of those attending Catholic colleges apparently indicated that their "religiousness" became weaker in college
* Mass attendance among almost 1/3 of Catholics at Catholic colleges declined during college years
As if the headline wasn't rose-colored enough, the article quotes the president of the ACCU as follows: "Disturbing as these figures are, they should not be a surprise and should not be interpreted as a specific outcome of students' attendance at a Catholic college or university"
Translation: The emperor has clothes. Really he does.
[Note: To the article's credit, however, it does quote the president of the Cardinal Newman Society as follows: "[If ACCU officials think] it is a happy fact that Catholics lose their faith somewhat slower at Catholic colleges than elsewhere, then they fail to appreciate the concerns of faithful Catholic families."]
Isn't it about time these Catholic news agencies stopped donning rose colored glasses when affixing headlines to such stories? These misleading headlines don't help anyone, but only serve to mask the truth. To correct these very real, serious problems among Catholics today requires that they be confronted openly, followed by proper education. News agencies should also call on those in authority to consider what has brought about this crisis and what can be done to fix it, not simply pretend the crisis doesn't exist.
Remember: These statistics relate to real people who have real souls to save. Grave errors in such important matters will have serious consequences for their adherents - both on earth and possibly for all eternally. "Since it is in the very nature of man to follow the guide of reason to his actions, if his intellect sins at all, his will soon follows; and thus it happens that false opinions, whose seat is in the understanding, influence human actions and pervert them." (Pope Leo XIII)
Ignorance in matters of religion is not a light matter - it can lead to the eternal loss of souls. As Pope Benedict XIV stated: "We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect."
The situation among Catholic youths today - a true crisis - does not warrant overly upbeat headlines, but rather calls for (1) better religious instruction, and (2) increased fear of the Lord. It does not well-serve Catholics to put a positive spin on this disaster.
"[F]or it is one of the most painful and grievous sights to see so many souls, redeemed by the blood of Christ, snatched from salvation by the whirlwind of an age of error, precipitated into the abyss of eternal death." (Pope Leo XIII, "Supremi Apostolatus Officio", 1883)
"Already the fields cultivated by our Lord are everywhere turning into a wilderness abounding in ignorance of the Faith, in error and vice, as though blown upon by some hideous pest. And to add to the anguish of this thought, so far from putting a check on such insolent and destructive depravity, or imposing the punishment deserved, they who can and should correct matters seem in many cases, by their indifference or open connivance, to increase the spirit of evil." (Pope Leo XIII, "Magnae Dei Matris", 1892)
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are all who live by it." (Ps. 111:10)
"What can there be that is worse than hell? Yet nothing is more profitable than the fear of it! For the fear of hell gains for us the crown of the kingdom" (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church)
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