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Needed more than ever.
The Catholic identity has been so watered down throughout the West that, with rare exceptions, virtually no Catholics have any sense of duty to the Church, to Christ. In fact, the very opposite is often encouraged by the clergy. And at the very least, there's no other message Catholics could reasonably conclude other than, there's no big deal about being Catholic.
This is best demonstrated by looking at what's called the walkaway ratio. The walkway ratio measures the number of people who leave a religion compared to the number of people who convert to it. To their everlasting shame, the U.S. bishops own the highest walkaway ratio of any religion in America. No one else is even close.
When this apostolate began in 2006, the walkaway ratio was 4-to-1, meaning for every convert to the Church, four were leaving. In 2018 — five years ago — the ratio jumped to 6.5-to-1. In raw numbers across the population,13% of the U.S. population are former Catholics; only 2% have come into the Church.
But those numbers, as we said, are five years old, and some early estimates for more recent years put the number even higher at eight walkaways for every convert. The percentage of Catholics relative to the overall population has fallen from its traditional level of 25% to barely over 20%. One out of four used to be Catholic; now it's one out of five — and falling. So, a little examination of conscience is necessary here.
... (churchmilitant.com)
In fact, there is hardly ever a peep from Catholics of any sort in the world of the culture wars, certainly compared to Protestants of a more conservative stripe. Given that, it's hardly surprising that the half of Catholics who walk away, walk to socially conservative Protestant congregations. But regardless of what may be attractive socially and culturally, or even emotionally or psychologically, one thing is absolutely certain: Theologically, it's a shipwreck.
No one who understands Who the Catholic Church is could ever walk away from Her. In fact, to do so would be to ensure damnation, as plainly stated in the catechism:
"He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it." (CCC ¶ 846) (vatican.va)
No Church, no salvation — for those who know. But, there's more: For Catholics who "stay" in the Church, but not with the sincerity of charity, it's hellfire for them, as well. From the same document (vatican.va):
"All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged."
Primary Video source and transcript continues here: https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vort-faith-with-fangs
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