By David G Bonagura, Jr., The Catholic Thing, April 15, 2020
Note: The Papal Posse – Raymond Arroyo, Fr. Gerald Murray, and TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal – will be appearing Thursday night at 8 PM on EWTN’s “The World Over.” They will be discussing recent developments in Rome and in the Church elsewhere. The show will be rebroadcast by EWTN (check local listings) and will also be available on EWTN’s YouTube channel shortly after airing.
We seem to have turned the corner on the coronavirus outbreak, and people are starting to think about “re-opening” society. All that is very welcome, of course, but it should lead us to think deeply – and frankly – on what it will take for us to “re-open” the Church.
If readers of authentically Catholic websites (such as TCT) were the only Catholics around, we could be certain that virtually all the faithful would return to Mass as soon as suspensions are lifted. Anguish over the temporary loss of the sacraments has been palpable around the world. Such heartfelt distress points to a people in love with the Lord, and a Church burning with evangelical zeal.
Except we know that such Catholics are only a fraction of the world, or even of any typical parish. And as a whole, the American Church has been doing more hemorrhaging than converting over recent decades. …