I put the title of this article in quotations because it is not actually my title.\u00a0 It is the title of a talk I heard today by John L. Allen, Jr. and it is also the title of his book on the same subject.\u00a0 The talk was given at our annual diocesan Ministerium\u00a0and was a continuation of a talk he gave last year.\u00a0 The book discusses ten trends affecting the Catholic Church in the 21st Century.\u00a0 Last year he covered four of the trends and discussed some of the remaining trends today.\u00a0 Here I offer a few highlights.\u00a0 If you want more information I provide the full citation for the book below.<\/p>\n
The first trend he discussed today was actually #3 in the book, Islam.\u00a0 I wish to be clear here the discussion was not <\/em>about Islam and terrorism.\u00a0 John Allen’s point was that 25% of the people in the world belong to the Islamic\u00a0religion and that makes it a major world player.\u00a0 Of course, he recognizes the 9-11 attacks are a major factor in how Islam is viewed but he also stressed that Pope Benedict’s speech at Regensburg in 2006 had a major effect on Catholic Muslim relations.<\/p>\n Then John Allen moved to Trend #4 – The New Demography.\u00a0 The point of concern here is the aging population.\u00a0 He referred to it as “The Grayby Boom” because of the increasing percentage of senior citizens in our pews.\u00a0 Generally, when people are discussing how the average age of our congregations is increasing, the discussion revolves around the fact that younger people are not coming to church much, if at all.\u00a0 That is true and in the “New Evangelization” we need to work on inviting these younger families into our churches.\u00a0 But even if everyone <\/em>was coming to church, the average age of our parishioners would still be increasing because people are living longer and the younger generations are not having as many children.\u00a0 This effects what ministries are needed and when to offer them.\u00a0 Working families prefer evening activities but the retirees often prefer daytime activities.\u00a0 We need to provide ministry to both groups at times that work for them.<\/p>\n Next came Trend #7 – Globalization.\u00a0 The world we live in is constantly changing and we need to make our faith relevant in it.\u00a0 If we don’t help people see how faith is still relevant in our world today, then why should we expect them to care about our faith?\u00a0 For example he spoke of the “Vocation of the Business Leader”<\/a>\u00a0released last year by the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice on how our faith influences our work in business.<\/p>\n Then\u00a0he talked about\u00a0Trend #10 – Pentecostalism.\u00a0\u00a0Pentecostalism is the most\u00a0rapidly growing religion today.\u00a0\u00a0In part, they are growing because they do better than us in some areas.\u00a0 Sometimes they do a better job of pastoral care.\u00a0 They do a better job of getting all parishioners involved.\u00a0 They make morality a\u00a0priority that sometimes we don’t like to talk about (but the Catholic Church has a lot to say about).\u00a0\u00a0We need to be aware of\u00a0what attracts people to churches.\u00a0 However, we must not engage in a popularity contest.<\/em>\u00a0 We are not called to proclaim the message that people want to hear.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>We are called to proclaim the truth that Jesus offers.<\/em>\u00a0 The question we need to answer is how best to proclaim Jesus’ message in the world today.<\/p>\n In that we must remember that we are not to be evangelized by\u00a0the\u00a0popular culture today.\u00a0 Rather, we are called to evangelize the culture according to the principles of our faith. In other words, we must shape society instead of letting it shape us.<\/p>\n To conclude, John Allen offered a new trend that he sees after the book was published in 2009.\u00a0 Trend #11 is Religious Freedom.\u00a0 When you hear this, I suspect that the first thing that might come to mind for Americans is the current controversy over the health care mandates.\u00a0 John Allen did speak about that but he spoke more about the global situation of\u00a0religious\u00a0persecution.\u00a0 In\u00a0the United States, if you\u00a0offend someone with your religious views, the worst that might happen is you get sued.\u00a0 In many countries,\u00a0your religious views\u00a0may get you executed.\u00a0 He said that every hour 17 people are martyred for their religious views today.\u00a0 Where is the freedom of religion?<\/p>\n These are just\u00a0a few of the highlights of what I heard today.\u00a0 The question for us think about is how these ideas affect our ministry.\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n John L. Allen, Jr.The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church<\/em>, Doubleday:New York 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I put the title of this article in quotations because it is not actually my title.\u00a0 It is the title of a talk I heard today by John L. Allen, Jr. and it is also the title of his book on the same subject.\u00a0 The talk was given at our annual diocesan Ministerium\u00a0and was a …<\/p>\n