THE last Census taken in Australia showed that a declining number of Australians now nominate themselves as Christians.
It is easy to interpret this move away from Christianity as a sign of the times, or to dismiss it as evidence of the Church’s declining relevance.
However, after reading Vince Hodge’s “Bishop Spong’s simplicity” and Fr Ryan’s “Honest insight to priesthood today” (CL 9/9/01), this writer believes that it is a straightforward case of “loss of faith”.
Mr Hodge claims that many of the bishop’s books set out “explanations of Bible teaching that resonate a chord of acceptance of the modern mind”.
Yet Bishop Spong does not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, the virgin birth or many of the other great miracles performed by Christ in the New Testament.
However, in Corinthians 15:14-15 St Paul states: “If Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach, and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying against God, because we said of him that he raised Christ from death”.
How does Mr Hodge reconcile this statement with the “modern mind”? Alternatively, does Bishop Spong believe that St Paul was so deluded by the other disciples that he was prepared to die for a myth?
In his article on the priesthood, Fr Ryan asserts that we have looked at the declining number of priests as someone’s fault, forgetting that priests and religious in the past came from big families. However in this country our couples average two children per family.
Surely the fault lies in the fact that many Catholics ignore the Holy Spirit inspired Catholic Church’s teachings on contraception, which our present Pope, John Paul II, described as “evil in its very nature?’
Yet two-income, two-child families are considered the norm.
Thus it does not take the intellect of Einstein to understand that if our society does not suffer the sacrifices, hardships and hand-me-downs which was the lot of large families, then we are in danger of becoming a nation where our compassion will become sanitised.
This statement will offend some people.
However, the latest polls show that 77 per cent of Australians approve of the Government’s handling of the 430 asylum seekers who were taken aboard the Tampa. Even more believe that euthanasia and abortion should be legalised.
Many will accuse this writer of being pessimistic. However, many Catholics, in confronting the spirit of the new age, have undeniably gone soft, and pander to those spiritual and politically correct minorities who fashion religion according to their lifestyles, and in some cases, their consciences.
WAYNE ROSE Dalby, Qld
