On Amy Welborn's blog, there's a discussion about non-Catholic sects in Guatemala(sp?) and their encroachment on the Catholic faithful. Apparently up to 30% of Guatemalans are now Protestant up from almost nill.

I just wonder why this is a big surprise or shock. We constantly ridicule Fundamentalists and other groups, we call them names, proclaim them confused, etc. But we refuse to acknowledge that these people are making major headway and they have their fingers on the pulse of the modern person and that they have a message that appeals to depths of people's hearts.

Shouldn't the Catholic brass be asking why we are losing so many and what have we done to create an environment that people want to leave en masse?

Oh no, they can't ask that, because that would imply a faliure on their part. After all, there are a billion Catholics in the world and that number represents an increase over the past 20 or so years, so there really isn't any problem. In fact it should be dogmatically stated that no problems can and do exist.

And so the story goes on . . . the fundamentalists slowly siphon our people until we wake one morning and realize that they constitute 20 percent and then 25 percent and then 35 percent of the population. Or, on the flip side, we wake up and realize that we are not growing as fast as we should and then we realize that we are not growing at all and then, the unthinkable, our numbers are declining!

Quick, get the Vatican (that takes 6 months), call a meeting (8 months), address our urgent decline (5 drafts of a solution, 3 months in the making, 2 years for Vatican review, sent back for revisions, another 9 months, approved a year later, 6 months to discuss how to apply solutions . . .)

So what is the solution? There is none, we must prepare for a slow and steady demise, which is fine. I say, though, that we go down with dignity and proclaim our superiority till the end.