Vatican Too Full of ‘Self-Praise’ To Recognize the Serious Decline of the Church

The Pope and the members of the Curia have invested their entire lives into the "New Springtime". Of course, according to them, it's a success.

From LifeSiteNews

By By His Grace Héctor Agüer, Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata (Argentina)

A 'Church on the move,' in search of those who do not know Christ or have distanced themselves from Him, must not be a 'Church on the run' from her own essence and mission.

The twelfth anniversary of Francis’ pontificate was recently celebrated. Vatican press releases are usually full of self-praise. It is very difficult to adjudicate ecclesial reality, which is incredibly vast and characterized by differences between countries, but from a certain vantage point it is possible to contemplate the surroundings. I can do it then from this corner of the far south that is Argentina, a nation that is (or was?) mostly Catholic. As the saying goes, “one example is enough to prove it.”

The decline of the Church is obvious. The bishops have their heads in the clouds. The seminaries are populated by young people whose numbers can be counted on one hand. There is even a 100-year-old seminary in which not a single seminarian has entered in 2025! Vocations are not appearing. The command of Christ – to make disciples of all nations (pánta ta éthne) – has yet to be fulfilled. Where are the apostles? People are bewildered, and many faithful feel a longing for better times.

I think the two laments of Pope Paul VI are still valid: “We expected after the Second Vatican Council a flourishing springtime, and a harsh winter came,” and “Through some crack the smoke of Satan has seeped into the temple of God.” Ecclesial presence in society is strictly limited, but journalists notice it because they recognize from a historical perspective that the Catholic Church has always been something official in Argentina. We are considered to be a Catholic country. But baptisms do not exist and the birth rate has plummeted – in 2023 there were 460,902 recorded births, the lowest figure of the last 50 years! And marriage no longer exists – now there are “partners.” The public presence of the Church is nonexistent; it only filters through the media when political judgments are made, especially against the government.

The Church must occupy herself with her specific task: to make Christians out of men, to imbue their conduct with the commands of Scripture and Tradition, and to lead them to heaven. The successive crises of the clergy have had a detrimental effect, above all because they increase the alienation of society from the Christian ideal. There is no Christian culture. Catholic universities include a partial theological formation, but they do not fulfill their main function of making the Church present in Argentine society, that is, creating a Christian culture. I do not know of any Catholic thinkers who stand out like Carlos Sacheri did. He was murdered by terrorists of the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) in 1974, in front of his wife and children, as he was leaving Mass in San Isidro.

The Statistical Yearbook of the Church has just been published, with figures corresponding to the 2022-2023 biennium. There it is revealed that the number of bishops has increased: from 5,353 in 2022 to 5,430 in 2023. At the same time, the number of priests has decreased: at the end of 2023, there were 406,996 priests worldwide, a decrease of 734 compared to 2022. And in the case of seminarians, the situation is more than worrying: there has been a sustained drop since 2012, going from 108,481 in 2022 to 106,495 in 2023. In other words, the number of priests and seminarians is diminishing, and the number of bishops is growing! There is also an increase of bishops in Argentina: over the last 12 years the number of auxiliary bishops has multiplied. And there are dioceses in which the number of bishops exceeds or equals the number of seminarians.

As a Catholic, I believe in the Church and I love her. I wish to see her flourish. I pray for her and for the Supreme Pontiff, for the health of his body and, above all, his soul. Sixty years after the closing of Vatican II, it is time to face reality. A “Church on the move,” in search of those who do not know Christ or have distanced themselves from Him, must not be a “Church on the run” from her own essence and mission.

Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata

Buenos Aires, Tuesday, March 25, 2025
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