Difficult time for the catholic church in USA Essay

Difficult time for the catholic church in USA - Essay Example A number of analysts have pointed out that the reason why the church is losing followers is because it has remained faithful to the Biblical concept of secular life which has seen it go against the new social norms in the contemporary society. Contemporary issues such as homosexuality, contraception, divorce, single parenthood and abortion have seen the church lose many followers. Others feel that the church has failed to adopt relevant religious strategies of preaching to satisfy the contemporary society. The teachings of the church must meet the social demands of the people in the society today. In fact, the reason why the Catholic church continues to lose its followers is because it has failed to adjust its teaching to suit the emerging demands of society. It is an indisputable fact that the Catholic Church has been hit by a follower crisis in the 21st century losing most of its members and priest. According to the Week (2010, Para. 1), a US magazine, a National Catholic Reporter termed the Catholics loss of members as the â€Å"largest national crisis in centuries.† The US Catholic National reporter presented a statistical countdown of the loss that US alone has experienced since the year 1960. In a 2009 study, the church lost 400 thousand followers, 9 thousand priest and over 1000 parishes closed in 2008. Resultantly, over 3,400 churches are served by visiting priests as the population of priest decline to an insufficient figure. Currently, the catholic population adds up to the 1.1 billion which is much lower than the Muslim population which is now at 1.5 billion. On the other hand, the population of the protestant churches is growing as more people consider the protestant believe as more concrete and satisfactory than the catholic believe. This kind of population decline of Catholic followers has sent signals to the catholic leaders, among them the Pope, to rethink on the reason why the church is in a state of crisis. The reason why the Catholic C hurch continues to lose its followers seems to be a mystery that is yet to be unveiled. In a recent speech about the â€Å"exodus† from the Catholic Church, Pope Francis termed this trend as the â€Å"the mystery of those who leave the church† to express the worry of the church on the current crisis (Pullella, 2013, Para. 4). In his speech, he recognized the need for the church to walk with the people and to address the social problems that the people are experiencing in the contemporary society. One reason he identified as a cause of the exodus is because the people feel that the church has remained rigid in implementing its own formulas (Para. 5). In a world that is changing, rigidity is the only thing that a church that addresses the problems of the people can afford. Pope Francis recognized that the church has to address the secular issues that are threatening the survival of the church to maintain the loyalty of the people. The implication of the statement of the Pope is that to a great extent the church has failed to conform to the societal needs, hence losing its followers to secularism. The emergence of controversial social issues has seen the Catholic Church lose more of its members. One of the social issues that have generated a lot of heat in the social spheres is same sex marriages that many people today see as a necessary right. Kissling (2013, Pp. 5-6) points out that the Catholic Chur