The Church, the Culture, and a Brand-New Institute
Four years ago, in August of 2019, the Pew Research Center dropped a statistical bombshell on the Catholic Church in America. In a survey of self-identified Catholics in the United States, almost 70% of those who responded said they did not believe what the Church teaches about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, instead saying that they believed the bread and wine becomes a symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Some might say the Pew study findings touched off a crisis in the Church, but I would submit that the crisis was already well underway, and the survey responses, as shocking as they may have been to many, only revealed a reality that had long been lurking beneath the surface of Catholic faith and practice in the United States.
And while the Pew statistic about lack of belief in the Real Presence may be the most attention-grabbing headline, for anyone who has been tracking the trends in US Catholicism in recent decades, good news of any kind has been hard to come by. The percentage of Catholics who attend Mass every Sunday is at an all-time low, and study after study finds virtually no statistical difference between Catholics and the culture on things like contraception, same sex marriage, divorce, and acceptance of gender theory. Catholics leaving the Church outnumber new Catholics by something like a 5:1 ratio, and that trend is worst among 18-35 year-old Catholics – often referred to as “future of the Church” - who are leaving the Church at an alarming rate to become so-called “nones”, those with no religious affiliation.
The message is clear: something has gone terribly wrong in Catholic faith and life, and we have not figured out how to fix it. To be honest, in far too many corners of the Church, I don’t even think we’ve recognized how serious the problems are, which naturally means there’s not much urgency behind finding ways to begin addressing these problems, and especially their roots.
And then there’s the culture. Or what’s left of it. No need to list the litany of losses here. What was once an imperfect but fundamentally sane, just, and virtuous Christian society, is now a shell of its former self.
The great 20th century social philosopher Will Herberg, speaking in the 1950s of the post-Christian era in the West, referred to what remained as a “cut flower culture”. By which he meant that, having rejected and cut ourselves off from our Judeo-Christian roots, we westerners were now living in a spiritually rootless culture which, while it would retain for a time the appearance of its original splendor and strength, was necessarily dying and withering away. I don’t think developments in the 70 or so years since would do anything to change his assessment.
Herberg’s observation would be echoed some 30 years later by the famous Russian dissident and convert from atheism and communism to Orthodox Christianity, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who, looking for an explanation of the cultural and moral decay so readily observable in Europe and America, as well as his native Russia, said the reason was simple: “Men have forgotten God.”
This is the root and reality of what we, as Catholics striving to live our faith and witness to the world, are facing: a culture which has forgotten God, and cut itself off from its roots, is now trying to construct a sane, just and virtuous society, and retain some semblance of a grip on what it means to be human. It is proving to be a futile attempt, but this withering worldview has spread too far, and penetrated our institutions too deeply, to be easily repudiated or abandoned.
Having said all that, the irrefutable truth is this: as dire as things may sometimes seem, Christ has conquered all, and made us sharers in His victory! What’s more, He has entrusted the mission of evangelization - in this culture, in these crazy times - to us!
It is in this context, in both the Church and the culture, that we have decided to launch Holy Family Institute of Catholic Faith and Life.
We are not embarking upon this initiative pretending to be some universal solution to all the world’s problems, or the genius idea that will turn the Titanic of our sinking society. Rather, our mission and goal is to offer an agile and innovative resource that can offer the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Catholic faith to anyone, anywhere.
We hope to serve Christ and the Church by providing engaging, inspiring, thought-provoking content - across many platforms and potential points of contact - with the ancient wisdom and the ever-present power of the Roman Catholic Church for all those seeking the truth, and for te multitudes the Truth is seeking.
This is a good work well begun, but there is much work to do. We hope you will come along for the ride as we entrust Holy Family Institute to the Holy Spirit and set off on the journey ahead. Please keep us in your prayers, and be assured we will be keeping you in ours!
In Christ,
Steve Greene, and the Holy Family Institute team