The Collapse of the Church in the West: 1960-2000

By FATHER G.H. DUGGAN S.M. - Christian Order Magazine, February 2004

It is a fact, now evident to everyone, that the Church in the West - that is, the countries of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand - has in recent decades suffered a severe setback; severe enough to call it a collapse.
...
In his book The Battle for the American Church, the historian Monsignor George A. Kelly, has the figures up to 1979 for the Church in the United States. They were then horrendous and there has not been any improvement in the intervening years. Nor is the statistical picture notably different in the other countries that, with the United States, constitute the West.

Some of the causes of this collapse are listed:
Neo-Modernism
Denying the Real Presence and the Immortal Soul
The Catechetical Revolution
The Moral Collapse (such as the rejection of Humanae Vitae)
The Liturgical Revolution

Conclusion

The collapse of the Church in the West has greatly weakened the whole Church in her never-ending conflict with the world. The road to recovery will be long and arduous. The principal means, and the most effective, at the disposal of the individual Catholic to hasten the dawn of a brighter day are, as always, prayer and sacrifice.

Father Duggan is a distinguished philosopher-theologian. He writes from New Zealand.

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