There was only one decline in church attendance, and that was in the late 1960s when the Vatican said it was not a sin to miss Mass. They said Catholics could act like Protestants, and so they did.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Plenty of people are raised Catholic and then aren't Catholic anymore, like any religion.
It's hard for the Catholic Church to accept change. When the mass was no longer said in Latin, loyalists went into mourning for years.
While attendance at traditional churches has been declining for decades... the evangelical movement is growing, and it is changing the way America worships.
A lot of churches have not moved with the times.
My parents were part of the Christian Family Movement, where we would have Masses said in our home and rotate with other families. I recall priests coming to our home and saying Mass in our living room. Catholicism was really woven through so much.
I was raised Catholic at a time when Vatican II was just taking hold.
Due to our consumer mindset, people are prone to jump from church to church, which weakens the church overall.
We're not opposed to Catholics having pride in their church, but that doesn't mean that every church that doesn't join them isn't a church.
The imminent demise of the church has been predicted since the middle of the 18th century. This is the regular secular mantra if churchgoing declines. I could take you to plenty of churches that are full to bursting and new churches being built.
I hope that by going to visit the pope I have enabled everybody to see that the words Catholic and Protestant, as ordinarily used, are completely out of date. They are almost always used now purely for propaganda purposes. That is why so much trouble is caused by them.