This is going to get Interesting...

[Jamie B]

Emphasis mine:
Somehow I don't think the RCC is all that worried about your assesment of their structures and future viability.

Think what you want to think. It is not just me.

Currently, about 23% of the US population is Catholic. Less than 30% attend church.
Catholic school population is down well over 50% from 1980.
Philadelphia is currently closing 33 Catholic schools.
The Rockford IL Diocese is closing 57 parishes.
Nationally, 1,200 Catholic schools have been closed in the last 11 years.
Students enrolled in US Catholic schools have dropped 642,000 in 10 years, to 2,000,000.
Now, add in all the deserved bad press where the RCC has completely mishandled the priest abuse crisis, and it is obvious that Catholics have been voting with their feet and leaving.


My assessment is quite accurate. The RCC is the poster child of what not to do these days.

[Jamisjockey]

Think what you want to think. It is not just me.

Currently, about 23% of the US population is Catholic. Less than 30% attend church.
Catholic school population is down well over 50% from 1980.
Philadelphia is currently closing 33 Catholic schools.
The Rockford IL Diocese is closing 57 parishes.
Nationally, 1,200 Catholic schools have been closed in the last 11 years.
Students enrolled in US Catholic schools have dropped 642,000 in 10 years, to 2,000,000.
Now, add in all the deserved bad press where the RCC has completely mishandled the priest abuse crisis, and it is obvious that Catholics have been voting with their feet and leaving.


My assessment is quite accurate. The RCC is the poster child of what not to do these days.

The growth or shrinking of the Catholic church is a straw man.
And not the point of this thread.

The point is, are they allowed to enter a contract with employees that restricts thier activities outside of work.
And that should be the focus of this discussion.

[longeyes]

You get me so horny when you speak of anarchy.


The individual is the smallest minority.


I want my freedom.

I want your freedom too.  I want my own.  What I meant was that there are cases where one person expects the majority to bend to his/her will rather than just seeking another venue in which to exercise that freedom.

Hey, any opportunity to feel horny should never be overlooked.  :)

[Jamisjockey]

I want your freedom too.  I want my own.  What I meant was that there are cases where one person expects the majority to bend to his/her will rather than just seeking another venue in which to exercise that freedom.
Hey, any opportunity to feel horny should never be overlooked.  :)

I've told people before freedom is an ugly ugly thing.  The RCC is free to make decisions as an organization that may lead to its downfall.  If you suck so bad as an employer, you won't find employees.  If people want jobs, they won't care.  If she reall needed AI so bad, she should have found a job elsewhere. 

[Perd Hapley]

I'm just going to assume that everyone who defends the school's/church's right to do stuff also agrees with that stuff. Because that is fashionable right now.

[Scout26]

Closed (for now) per request of the OP.   I'll bring it up with the rest of the mods to see if it could or should be reopened.

[Scout26]

The brain trust has spoken. 

Carry on.

[roo_ster]

The brain trust has spoken. 

Carry on.

   <---- Mistrust of the brain trust.

[Jamie B]

  <---- Mistrust of the brain trust.

So this 'brain trust' of whom he speaks is Pinky and the Brain, who came up with the Pink'n'Twilight theme last weekend!? Please!

Homey don't think so! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bpf_WIn51Q

[Northwoods]

Think what you want to think. It is not just me.

Currently, about 23% of the US population is Catholic. Less than 30% attend church.
Catholic school population is down well over 50% from 1980.
Philadelphia is currently closing 33 Catholic schools.
The Rockford IL Diocese is closing 57 parishes.
Nationally, 1,200 Catholic schools have been closed in the last 11 years.
Students enrolled in US Catholic schools have dropped 642,000 in 10 years, to 2,000,000.
Now, add in all the deserved bad press where the RCC has completely mishandled the priest abuse crisis, and it is obvious that Catholics have been voting with their feet and leaving.


My assessment is quite accurate. The RCC is the poster child of what not to do these days.

You completly missed the point.

[Jamie B]

You completly missed the point.

Not about viability.

[Northwoods]

Their issues WRT viability have to do with them becoming more "of this world" than they should have.  Things like tolerance of pederasty in the priesthood are because they took their eye off the Biblical ball and let worldly concerns take over.  Decline in school attendance probably has as much to do with economic factors keeping parents from paying for it, but also likely has to do with a lot of the Catholic schools become less "Catholic" and more mainstream liberal propaganda mills.

Becoming more "of this world" will only serve to further alienate people.  Changing their doctrine to allow for artificial contraception, artificial conception methods, or anything else might bring a few people in, but would lose them orders of magnitude more.  

FTR - I am not Catholic.  I have a lot of issues with their doctrine and would not ever choose to join them.  But that is seperate from the issues above.

[Perd Hapley]

Their issues WRT viability have to do with them becoming more "of this world" than they should have.  Things like tolerance of pederasty in the priesthood are because they took their eye off the Biblical ball and let worldly concerns take over.  Decline in school attendance probably has as much to do with economic factors keeping parents from paying for it, but also likely has to do with a lot of the Catholic schools become less "Catholic" and more mainstream liberal propaganda mills.

Becoming more "of this world" will only serve to further alienate people.  Changing their doctrine to allow for artificial contraception, artificial conception methods, or anything else might bring a few people in, but would lose them orders of magnitude more.  

FTR - I am not Catholic.  I have a lot of issues with their doctrine and would not ever choose to join them.  But that is seperate from the issues above.

That.

We have known for some time that as the mainline Protestant denominations skew more and more to the left, their numbers drop lower and lower. This makes perfect sense, of course. If church becomes less church, people have less reason to go to a church that doesn't offer as much churchiness. If the church has become so un-church that it's just like every other cultural institution, people will just go to every other cultural institution. Why shouldn't they?

IOW, if the Catholics are losing numbers, the smart money blames Catholic liberalism, not Catholic conservatism.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

IOW, if the Catholics are losing numbers, the smart money blames Catholic liberalism, not Catholic conservatism.



aaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!


i agree
with great reluctance

cradle mackerel snapper here