Decline Catholicism :: essays research papers

Picture this if you will. In the beginning (being 1945) god created a shepherd (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 stray from the agglomerate in fear of being labeled a bad sheep (Catholic) and suffering the consequences of perennial damnation. But as time went on and the sheep ultramodernized, withal the shepherd was headstrong and conservative in his ways and refused to change. So the sheep began to stray from the shepherd with poor 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 well and changed his ways. With this now modern shepherd, the modern sheep began to gradually come back. But living in a modern pasture the relationship between the two had changed.Mr. Houston fellow students, What were the reasons for the nightfall of Cathol icism in America since 1945, this has been the topic of my research for the previous tether terms. The previous analogy, although being far fetched, if you put it into perspective 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 family modernized and became increasingly secular in education, the media and politics, people began to question somewhat 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 position at Vatican 2, which precedeed in the modernized Catholic Church. Consequently from here catholic membership began to increase, however the character 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 shew direction of decline.Before I begin my findings I would like to trammel the nature of secularism which is a word you will hear throughout my research. Secularism rejection of ghostly and sacred forms and practices in favour of rational assessment and decision-making, and civil institutions of presidency