Let's Do a Comparison-Pope Pius XII vs The 'New Springtime'

Pope Pius XII reigned from 2 March 1939 until 9 October 1958.

During his reign, the number of Priest in the US increased by 51.5%, from 33,540 to 50,813. The number of Parishes grew from 13,114 to 16,552, an increase of 26.2%.

When he came to the Papal Throne there were 209 seminaries in the US. When he died, there were 516. There were 16,746 seminarians in 1939. By 1958 there were 36,980.

The number of Catholic schools was 9,781 when Pius became Pope, with 2,548,243 students. When he died there 12,853 schools with almost double the number of students, 5,057,780.

And the Catholic population had grown from 21,406,507 to 36,023,977.

The Second Œcumenical Council of the Vatican ran from 11 October 1962 to 8 December 1965. Here are some statistics for the post-conciliar era, with the destruction begun by the newly canonised Paul VI.

In 1970, there were 160,931 nuns in the US. Last year there were 45,605. 1970, 59,192 priests. Last year, 37,181. In 1970, there were 18,224 parishes, 571 without a resident priest. Last year, 17,156 parishes, 3,552 without a priest.

In 1970, we had 9,366 Catholic elementary schools with 3.359m students. Last year, 5,178 schools with 1.306m students. In 1970 there were 1.089m infant and 84,534 adult baptisms. Last year, 660,367 and 38,374.

And in 1970 48% of Catholics attended Mass every week. Not good, but still far better than the 23% last year. In 1975, 7.5m Americans identified as 'former Catholics'. Last year it was 30m.

And all of these massive drops in vocations, baptisms, Mass attendance, parishes, schools, etc., have happened whilst the Catholic population of the US increased from 47.9m Catholics registered in parishes to 68.5m.

Here are some figures from 1965, immediately after the Council compared to 2002 when the article from which they were taken was written.

Priests. While the number of priests in the United States more than doubled to 58,000, between 1930 and 1965, since then that number has fallen to 45,000. By 2020, there will be only 31,000 priests left, and more than half of these priests will be over 70.

Ordinations. In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States. In 2002, the number was 450. In 1965, only 1 percent of U.S. parishes were without a priest. Today, there are 3,000 priestless parishes, 15 percent of all U.S. parishes.

Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700, a decline of over 90 percent. Two-thirds of the 600 seminaries that were operating in 1965 have now closed.

Sisters. In 1965, there were 180,000 Catholic nuns. By 2002, that had fallen to 75,000 and the average age of a Catholic nun is today 68. In 1965, there were 104,000 teaching nuns. Today, there are 8,200, a decline of 94 percent since the end of Vatican II.

Religious Orders. For religious orders in America, the end is in sight. In 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuit priests. In 2000, the figure was 389. With the Christian Brothers, the situation is even more dire. Their number has shrunk by two-thirds, with the number of seminarians falling 99 percent. In 1965, there were 912 seminarians in the Christian Brothers. In 2000, there were only seven. The number of young men studying to become Franciscan and Redemptorist priests fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.

Catholic schools. Almost half of all Catholic high schools in the United States have closed since 1965. The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000. Parochial schools suffered an even greater decline. Some 4,000 have disappeared, and the number of pupils attending has fallen below 2 million – from 4.5 million.

Though the number of U.S. Catholics has risen by 20 million since 1965, Jones’ statistics show that the power of Catholic belief and devotion to the Faith are not nearly what they were.

Catholic Marriage. Catholic marriages have fallen in number by one-third since 1965, while the annual number of annulments has soared from 338 in 1968 to 50,000 in 2002.

Attendance at Mass. A 1958 Gallup Poll reported that three in four Catholics attended church on Sundays. A recent study by the University of Notre Dame found that only one in four now attend.

And yet there are Bishops who claim we are in a 'New Springtime', that the Church is vibrant and growing, and that the way to 'grow' even more is more of the same suicidal poison they've been injecting the Church with for the past 50 years! If this is spring, God save us when winter rolls around!

Here's proof of what I mean.

It has taken the shortage of priestly and religious vocations to awaken in us an appreciation of a broadly based shared ministry and a realization that it is in the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ to be endowed with many gifts, ministries and offices. What some refer to as a "vocations crisis" is, rather, one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, a sign of God’s deep love for the Church, (emphasis added) and an invitation to a more creative and effective ordering of gifts and energy in the Body of Christ. This is a time of great challenge and opportunity in the Church, not least of all because the gifts of the lay faithful have been flourishing in unprecedented numbers and in unforeseen ways."

From a Pastoral Letter from "Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Holy Thursday, April 20, 2000"