Decline Catholicism :: essays research papers

Picture this if you will. In the descent (being 1945) god created a guard (the Catholic Church) in which we the sheep followed blindly. Everywhere the shepherd took us, we would follow without complaint. A sheep dared not question the shepherd or affirm from the flock in fear of being labeled a atrocious sheep (Catholic) and suffering the consequences of eternal damnation. nevertheless as time went on and the sheep modernized, only the shepherd was stubborn and conservative in his ways and refused to change. So the sheep began to shed from the shepherd with little fear, scattering, going to other pastures and other flocks with other Shepherds. The Shepherd realized his flock was depleting so he began to modernize as easy and changed his ways. With this now modern shepherd, the modern sheep began to gradually come back. But life-time in a modern pasture the relationship between the dickens had changed.Mr. Houston fellow students, What were the reasons for the decline of Ca tholicism in America since 1945, this has been the topic of my query for the previous three terms. The previous analogy, although being far fetched, if you put it into office outlines my opinion on the development of Catholicism since 1945 to the present day. That initially we followed the Catholic Church unquestionably and devoutly, mass on Sundays, fish on Fridays (etc). But as society modernized and became increasingly secular in education, the media and politics, hatful began to question some of the church teachings and the church authorities. Though the church, lead by conservatives initially would not change. As Catholics began to move away, the church realizing the situation reassessed their slope at Vatican 2, which resulted in the modernized Catholic Church. Consequently from here catholic membership began to increase, however the nature of Catholicism changed. This leads me to my hypothesisIn our modernized secular society, catholic membership began to drop initially, due to the conservative views of the church. As a result of Vatican 2 Catholicism was modernized and membership within the religion was re-established. Although the nature of Catholicism has changed in this age of materialism and consumerism, this does not necessarily indicate direction of decline.Before I begin my findings I would like to define the nature of secularism which is a word you will judge throughout my research. Secularism rejection of religious and sacred forms and practices in favour of rational sound judgment and decision-making, and civil institutions of government