I do not want to sound like a bitter old fogey...loking back to the past with rose tinted glasses but do any of you think that the world around you is getting worse? Or to put it another way that love is growing cold? Maybe it is my imagination but I see signs of this all around me....our Church grows emptier every passing Sunday...young people more and more into drink and drunks....older people stressed out and in constant pursuit of money....more and more the society round me unsure of the difference between right and wrong?

-- Padraig Caughey (padraigcaughey@hotmail.com), December 02, 2003

Answers

This is nto your imagination. We have cultuvated a culture that is based on secular pursuits and placed carnal pleasure and emideate satisaction above all else, at the exclusion of stability and spiritual matters, which we have clased as "Personal" and " An aspect og your life". The living message of CHrist is incompatable with a pursuit of carnal pleasure and emediate satisfaction, so its seen as less and less important.

You can see it in society, where the most crude and baser peopel are "Funny", and the most greedy and demeanign ones are the "Winners", and those who can put peopel down the most are the ones praised. In shrot, we live in a society that rejects traditional vlaues, and as a result we see more and more evil in the world.

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), December 02, 2003.

As Pope John Paul said, "We live in apocolyptic times..."

-- Andrew (andyhbk96@hotmail.com), December 02, 2003.

If you look back in history, there are periods of religious decline and fervor. I'm not sure where you live, but I've witnessed a growth in our Catholic community just outside of Atlanta, GA. In fact, I've noticed a growing religious sentiment amongst many of the people that I live and work around. I would not be too quick to predict "gloom and doom". While I'll admit that the state of the "western" world is mired in infantile hedonism, I beleive that there are -and always will be- godly, saintly people to inspire us. If you look, you'll find them in the most unlikely places. May God bless and keep you.

-- Wesley D. Marshall (marshall_wesley@hotmail.com), December 02, 2003.

First, just a quick note- We are indeed living in apocalyptic times, but we have been ever since the Resurrection. Christ initiated the eschatological age.

Second, yes, things are pretty bad, but the lord's perfect justice and perfect mercy are eternal. Thus, we have no excuse to grow weary. In any case, keep faith in Christ! Place your trust in the Holy Spirt working in the Church! Be a light to the world, the salt of the earth. These dark days will pass- God has promised us that.

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail. com), December 02, 2003.

Thank-you for your responses, I notice that they range in tone from 'You are right the world is taking a nose -dive' to 'Well its bad but then its always been bad' to 'Things are fine

-- Padraig Caughey (padraigcaughey@hotmail.com), December 02, 2003.

The Pope has told us repeatedly that we are witnessing a spring time of evangelization... I was in Rome in 1998 when 500,000 members of the ecclesial movements attended the Mass of Pentecost with the Pope. Something like 130 new movements - all founded in the last 40 or so years were present, all striving to bring lay Catholics to live a vibrant and enthusiastic Catholic life of grace and apostolate.

Where sin abounds, so does grace abound... Yes, there are grave problems and structures of sin in the world. Yes, there are great challenges and crisis.... absolutely titanic problems facing us. But we have Our Lord's promise to "be with us", building up HIS CHURCH, and blessing us with HIS PRESENCE until the end of time.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), December 02, 2003.

Not depression or dark night--just a mood. We're human, we're aloud to have those now and then. And a "dark night" is something of an entirely different order; I've never even been close. But thanks for your welcome.

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), December 02, 2003.

you know, i just cant go without throwing in my two cents...

being only 21, i can see in my past nine years that things have grown progressivly ... ah... whats the word? lewd? immoral? AH YES, relativistic. the problem isnt necessarily sin, its a side effect of tolerance for sin. if we accept sin in others, then its not a long hop to believe it is right for us as well.

rapidly the lines are dividing. true religious are becoming more religious and the faithless and weak in faith are lining up on the other side. not that things cant get better, but it is not debatable at all that the times are hard and getting worse.

the arguement that this is what our parents said and theirs before them is debunked. namely, morality IS on the slide. our grandparents said that about making out before marraige, our parents said it about sex before marraige, and now our generation cant even say no to homosexual acts outside of marraige.

i hope, with all my heart, that a revolution in faith is coming....

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), December 02, 2003.

"i hope, with all my heart, that a revolution in faith is coming...."

It's already begun. Move quickly, though. Probably the best thing anyone can do to help out is to pick up on St. Louis De Monfort's program for total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What the heck, if you need my to buy you a guide to De Monfort's consecration to the Virgin Mary, I'll do it. Let's go.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), December 03, 2003.

Listen...stop being ignorant, and don't get religion involved (I am Christian (raised Catholic). I do not feel that the world is getting any worse. Want an example? Two World Wars. Two Nuclear Bombs Dropped. Human Sacrifices as religious rituals. The spanish inquistion? need i go on? no, i need not. -end-

-- tyler (joeyhigh5@yahoo.com), December 10, 2003.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more.

In the US we are seeing a true clash of civilizations and culture war: the anti-Christian hoards vs the Catholic/Christian forces. You have the hateful, permanently angry pagans getting more and more depraved with sex, drugs, and violent pursuits...more and more unhinged with politics and power... and on the other side you have Catholics and other Christians waking up to the need to know their faith and defend the truth about God and man...

I also see many signs or echoes of this same clash world-wide in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe. Ideologies racing for domination while the Churches mobilize evangelization efforts...

It's a free-wheeling affair. All interconnected. For example, imagine what would happen if in 2004 Bush is re-elected and the Republicans cement control of the Senate with 61 seats? They'd be able to appoint a whole raft of quality judges to all the circut courts as well as the Supreme Court. That alone would have tectonic effects culturally if these judges strike down bad judicial decisions from Roe vs Wade to legalized porn, to legalized sodomy, etc.

Suddenly Planned Parenthood would loose $100 Million in federal money, as would all the other "charities" promoting the culture of death... that would have a profound impact on American (and global) culture.

If pornography was outlawed... forced off the Internet, forced off the bookshelves... 80% of young boys wouldn't get hooked on the stuff... That would have a profound impact on public morality and rates of STD transmission.

If the liberals lost control of their near monopoly on public education, 20 million children (who last I checked didn't belong to or work for the "state") would cease to be used in social engineering experiments by the atheists, gays, and feminists. Imagine if local school boards (the public) had control over the content and ideological propaganda that their own children receive! That would have incredible social repercussions from teen pregnancy to fashion to societal expectations as to what "mature" adults do and act like.

In short, a single event: re-election and cementing control of the senate could have lasting beneficial repercussions.

Or what if the next Pope is Chinese? If he summarily excommunicates a list of several hundred or thousand public figures, theologians, and politicians who have repeatedly taught heresy or voted for immoral laws? That too could have global repercussions.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), December 10, 2003.