UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
* Pope Francis appears to be a master of modern media. He wisely often leaves the Vatican’s scandalous space swamped by child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption charges for potentially more media friendly outposts, like Manila. The pope’s media managers then seek to present the Catholic Church in nations like the Philippines as a flourishing institution, even a national treasure. While the Catholic faith is likely a personal treasure for many Filipinos, is it a national treasure? Is the Church flourishing in the Philippines? If not, what if anything can Pope Francis do to change that? Media masters can create mirages, but these fade fairly quickly under pressure from hard facts. Facts, like Dorothy’s dog, Toto, tend to push open the curtains of wizards, even papal ones if necessary.
* The Catholic Church is declining, not flourishing, in the Philippines, it appears. A fair measure of a religion’s spiritual and financial health is weekly attendance statistics. If Catholics do not show up, worship and contribute regularly, counting them as Catholics seems like a hollow bad habit. An April 2013 survey found that weekly church attendance among Filipino Catholic adults dropped more than 42 percent to 37 percent in 2013 from a reported high of 64% percent in 1991.
* The survey also showed that while only 37% of Catholics attend church weekly. in comparison, there are percentage wise nearly twice as many of other Christians who are weekly churchgoers: 64% among Protestants, 70% among Iglesia ni Cristos and 62% among other Christians. Seventy-five percent of Muslims attend a mosque at least weekly. This indicates that the Catholic Church in the Philippines is declining sharply, rather than flourishing, no? It also appears to have some flourishing competitors. Of course, 37 % still can currently generate millions of Catholics who can be expected to come out and participate in a once in a generation papal mass, as is now happening. But by attending a well hyped papal mass, a “good Catholic” one does not necessarily make, no?
* Moreover, the Catholic hierarchy hardly seems to be a national treasure in the Philippines or anywhere else, it seems. The nation has one of the highest birthrates in Asia and a population of almost 100 million. By 2080, demographers predict that population could swell to 200 million. Right now, more than a quarter of Philippine people live on the equivalent of 62 cents a day, according to government data. According to the United National Population Fund, half of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines each year are unintended.
* The slums of the Philippines are reportedly already overcrowded. Families stand in line for more than 12 hours for a government assistance check. Some soup kitchens are forced to limit their guests to street children, the elderly and homeless people with severe disabilities.UNICEF estimates there are as many as 500,000 “street children” in the Philippines.
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