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Vatican News

David Bonagura has a thought provoking article at The Catholic Thing, which reads in part:

Will Catholics Return to Mass?

By David G Bonagura, Jr.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/04/15/will-catholics-return-to-mass/

Now, with Mass taken away from them and a new Sunday routine established, how have their lives changed spiritually? Likely, not much. Since (many Catholics) do not fully understand the Mass, they will go by what they feel: “I don’t feel like I’m missing anything, so why go back?”

Second, consider teenagers and young adults, who tend to view religion through a legalistic lens. For their whole lives, they have heard that they must go to Mass on Sunday: “It’s God’s law.” Suddenly, they learned that they must not go to Mass; that attendance is regulated not by God, but by bishops. When the contagion passes, what are we supposed to say to convince them to return? “The bishops say we have to go to Mass again.” Given the low opinion of American bishops at the current moment, we can guess how that conversation will go.

Third, consider all American Catholics, young and old, who live in a culture that exalts the individual as the only absolute. Rules, formalities, and institutions are perceived as obstacles to individual freedom. For decades, the Church has had to battle the individualistic approach to God: “I am spiritual, not religious. I can pray to God anywhere and don’t need to be in a church. I worship God how I feel and on my terms.”

After what may be months of urging people to “observe the Sabbath in some way,” a way of the individual’s own choosing, will the Church be able to convince people to come back? Or has the Church unwittingly fed the insatiable beast of individualism: “Why should I go to church now if for months it was fine to watch it on YouTube?”

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If, after Mass resumes, more Catholics join the ranks of the non-practicing, will we see the prediction – a half-century ago – of Father Joseph Ratzinger come to fruition: that the Church will become smaller yet purer? He would be right on the first. And as much as we may desire the second – a Church filled with prayer warriors and angels of charity, especially after two decades of the worst kind of scandal – it will require us to make very serious efforts to rediscover the vitality and appeal needed to fulfill the Church’s mission of bringing Christ to all.