NEWS: Future of the Catholic Church

Future of the Catholic Church

Updated: 04/20/2008 08:33 AM
Source: http://news10now.com/content/all_news/central_new_york/114520/future-of-the-catholic-church/Default.aspx

By: Bill Carey


Pope Benedict XVI

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. -- A half century ago, the Catholic Church was doing well in America. There were churches on every corner and they were filled, sometimes daily. There were plenty of priests and those studying to become members of the clergy.


There was even a top rated TV show featuring a Bishop from New York City, Fulton Sheen. Even the movies had heroes in clerical collars.


But things have changed. Syracuse's Bishop took note of that fact recently.


“We were a very religious country at one time. So many of my letters from the kids that I get, they tell me their grandmother, their grandfather still go to daily mass. Well, yeah, how about their fathers and mothers, you know?” said Bishop James Moynihan of the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese.


Which is why church leaders point optimistically to this event for young people at a seminary in Yonkers. After more than a generation of declining attendance and involvement, there is an enthusiasm, they say, present in the next generation that shows the pendulum may be swinging back.


“It's constantly growing. The kids are excited. I see vocations. You know, I see people serving in the church. Sacrificing for it. The peer pressure. I mean everything that's there, ten times worse than it was when I was a teenager. They look to their faith as an answer to that. So that's, I would say, why it's more important now to them than ever,” said Bob Walters, Syracuse Diocese Youth Ministry.


“I think that it’s very much alive. All these people here, 20,000 people here and I think with the youth involved, it’ll bring it back alive,” said Sophie Ilacqua of Utica.

“We were talking about it before. You’re in your hometown, you have your youth group and that’s maybe 30 kids, maybe. You get here and you see so many people, especially a lot of youth,” said Sean Bates of Corning.


“Belief, faith and God. And there’s all these people here supporting that and I think other people are supporting that and I think other people notice that we really do believe in God,” said Natalie Alibrandi of Fayetteville.


Church leaders say events like this will have an impact, strengthening a movement back to the church, which they say is already growing.


“No one will walk away from this thing unchanged. They'll be different for the rest of their lives. It will change their life,” Walters said.

On his stops in Washington and New York, the Pope has stressed a message of hope. In a country where the Catholic Church has often had its share of challenges, leaders see a sign of hope here for the future.


There are close to half a million Catholics living in the Syracuse, Ogdensburg and Rochester diocese.

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