The Bible's God Is Losing Ground
Making Room for Nature's God

An Essay by Raymond Fontaine, PhD - February 2004

    One evening, while surfing the Internet, I tumbled onto an intriguing Web page at the following address:  http://www.archstl.org/archives/about/cathhist.htm. It describes the organization of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Totally subject to the Pope, this Catholic complex is administered by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

   According to their latest report, the U.S. Church has 400 bishops, 45,000 priests, 75,000 women religious (sisters and nuns). The Church is spread through the nation in 19,000 parishes. Its members number 65,000,000 Catholics, making up 23% of the nation's population.

   The Church inculcates its religious doctrines not only in its churches but also in its schools. Today in the U.S. there are 7,000 Catholic elementary schools educating 2 million students annually. There are 1,300 Catholic high schools teaching 650,000 students and 238 Catholic colleges and universities educating more than 700,000 students. The U.S. Catholic school system employs more than 175,000 educators. 

   During twenty years, I was a Catholic priest who preached in church and taught in school. I am fully aware of the Catholic Church's effective organization for spreading its religious doctrines. These are all based on the Bible, elaborated by theologians and preached principally by priests. All priests swear blind obedience to the Pope who claims infallibility. Whatever he declares dogma is absolute truth and unchanging.

   In 1967, when I no longer believed in the Catholic Church's teaching authority and truthfulness, I left the Church. I stood by myself relying on God's gift to humans - intellect. I then believed in God not as revealed in the Bible but as revealed in Nature. Its structures and laws presuppose an Intelligent Creator.

   Knowing that Nature's God is the only God, I feel compelled, even in my old age, to help others know the truth. I am mainly concerned about the people who are questioning the teaching of the Church. They need help to free themselves from the bondage of the Church. Alone, without any affiliation to a church, I feel rather helpless and unable to challenge and weaken the powerful organization of the Church. The task of freeing people from the Church and its teachings looks like a mission impossible. The odds of my succeeding seems less than one in a billion.

   With these sentiments of helplessness, I returned to the Internet for some sign of hope. I found it at the following address: http://www.geocities.com/pharsea/decline.html. The title of the page is "The Decline of the Catholic Church in the U.S.A." From there I quote the following statisticsl.

Priests.

Between 1930 and 1965, the number of priests in the United States more than doubled to 58,000.
Since then the number has fallen to 45,000.
By 2020, there will be only 31,000 priests left, and more than half of these priests will be over 70.

In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States.
In 2002, this number was 450.

In 1965, only 1% of the U.S. parishes were without a priest.
In 2002 this number was 15%.

Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,700.
Two-thirds of the 600 seminaries that were operating in 1965 have now closed.

Religious Orders.

In 1965, there were 180,000 nuns.
By 2002, that had fallen to 75,000 and the average age of a Catholic nun is today 68.

In 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuit priests.
In 2000, the figure was 38.

In 1965, 2,251 young men were studying to become Franciscan priests.
In 2000, the figure was 60.

In 1965, there were 912 seminarians in the Christian Brothers.
In 2002, there were only 7.

The number of young men studying  to become Franciscan and Redemptorist priests
fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.

Catholic schools.

Almost half of all Catholic high schools in the United States have closed since 1965.
The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000.

Catholic Marriage.

Catholic marriages have fallen in number by one-third since 1965.
The annual number of annulments has soared from 338 in 1968 to 50,000 in 2002.

Attendance at Mass.

In 1958, a Gallup Poll reported that 74% of Catholics then attended church on Sundays.
In 2000, the rate was 25%, according to the Fordham study.

Statistics on the decline of the Catholic Church in Europe are also available at the above Web address. 

   Clearly the Catholic Church in the United States has declined significantly in the last forty years. It is believed that the recent scandal of the pedophile priests in the U.S. will accelerate the decline even more.

   Many Catholics are walking away from their Church. They still believe in God and want to remain close to him. Some go to another Christian Church. Many do not know where to go.

   They are ready to learn that to continue a close relationship with God they need not go to a church, nor to a priest or minister. The wonders of nature, its structures and laws reveal an intelligent Creator. God exists. The flowers and the trees, the mountains and the oceans, the animals and the birds, babies and scientists point to God's existence. God does not need churches nor worship as designed by Popes. Nor does God  need our adoration and admiration. But if we want to praise him and rely on his help, we can do it at home or in our gardens, alone or with family and friends. A simple thank-you will do for God. Why not for us?  For the index of my essays,  click here.