This is FREE only for one day, then only paid subscribers have access to it. In this new episode I take on a claim that just won’t die: that Vatican II is to blame for the collapse in Mass attendance. A recent economics study made the rounds, arguing that the Council caused pews to empty out. But when you scratch the surface, the evidence is flimsy, and the real story points somewhere else entirely. Was Vatican II really to blame for the decline in Catholic Mass attendance—or is the deeper issue Catholic culture itself? (Continues below)
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I dig into the cultural shifts of the 1960s, sloppy implementations of Vatican II at the parish level, and the dangers of weak catechesis and watered-down homilies. But there are many signs of renewal today, which I get into as well.
Show Notes
In this episode:
Breaking down a recent Catholic News Agency article on Mass decline and Vatican II
Why correlation is not causation: cultural shifts vs. Council reforms
How weak catechesis and “we don’t take ourselves seriously” Catholic culture poisoned parish life
Why Vatican II itself wasn’t the problem—but its sloppy, agenda-driven implementation often was
The power of Catholic culture as a teacher: how it formed the faithful in the past, and how it can again
Evidence of renewal: rising conversions and signs of a cultural pendulum swing back to seriousness in the faith
Why Catholics—not Vatican II—are ultimately responsible for empty churches