"The sale of church property on a gargantuan scale is an indication of the fact the Australian populace is living in a post-Christian age. More and more people are becoming secular as opposed to being religious and spiritual. Fifty years ago, the Australian populace was much more religious; the Catholic Church has begun to recede dramatically since the Second Vatican Councilof 1963. Likewise the Anglican Church has seen plummeting parishioner numbers since the introduction of homosexuality as not a ban to clergy, same sex marriages, female clergy and even female bishops.
The closure of Anglican, Protestant and Catholic churches in rural and populated areas is also due to the fact that they lack priests, nuns and seminarians. People have lost commitment.
Especially Catholics aren’t committed as they were before the Second Vatican Council of 1963. Those people that were once committed, those people who founded these churches, have wandered away from the Catholic Church, and their children have perhaps grown up not knowing Christianity at all. Thus, out of the youth there are hardly any candidates for seminary or monasticism. Without a solid seminary and monastic program, the Catholic Church can hardly expect a positive future.
It is quite sad that Catholic and Anglican churches are being abandoned and sold. For example, at the Russian Orthodox parish in Warrnambool, there are beautiful, old stained glass windows which have inscriptions in memory of the founders of the church, brass candle sticks which have engraved in them names of parishioners who are now forgotten by their own people. Those parishioners and founders of the church are remembered in our prayers during every liturgy—as is standard practice in the Orthodox Church to pray for the “founders of this holy temple.”
No comments:
Post a Comment