Why are people leaving the Catholic Church? A Facebook User, Modest Chibuikem wrote: I’m from owerri Nigeria and I have lived here all my life.
My observations are:
1. There seems to be this attitude on the part of the Catholic church that “we don’t really need you, it is you who needs us; if you don’t attend church I bet you someone else definitely will”. There is not much effort to convert (new) people. Only Catholics go to Catholic Church, and this is not a good sign. Some parishes only get new (Catholic) members during infant baptism. There’s hardly any record of new adult members who freely join the church on their own based except of course adults perhaps form Catholic homes that were not baptized as infants. Other churches go out to bring new members but Catholics are seen not interested in getting new members.
2. Lack of adequate catechesis. We now have a generation of Catholics that need cathecism only in preparation for specific sacraments. On the part of the clergy, there seems to be lack of adequate time to instruct new members. No time to at all. On the part of the laity, there seems to be no need for cathecism at all if you are not preparing for any sacrament.
3. Unnecessary bureaucracy. Cases abound where the clergy had refused to administer either sacraments or simple rites to persons on the basis of issues that ordinarily do not constitute impediments. Someone asks for confession outside the regular confession time of the parish and the priest refused, a baby may not be baptized if the parents do not pay levies and dues, mass may not be celebrated for a dead member because she did not pay her dues while alive (even when it was obvious that the person really was poor and could not afford the levies while Alive) etc, cases like this have become regular news and do not help the church.
4. It seems priests do not prepare for holy mass these days or even any other sacraments. They just perform those rites as mere duties, almost lifeless rituals, as if to rush to other more important engagements.
5. We cannot also deny the impact of abuses and scandals. Priests and religious getting involved in scandalous acts have a way of affecting the faith of the laity. As a mass server, a priest once slapped me on the sanctuary during holy mass for a minor mistake. If not my mum for the support from my mum, I probably would have stopped serving mass then. My mum encouraged me to continue and prayed for me that night because she knew it really affected me.
6. Make the worship places comfortable and conducive for worship and concentration. Some churches are dirty: dirty pews, charcoals littered on the floors, unkept compounds, etc. Nothing is wrong to have a well fitted AC and good sound systems in church. This generation of Christians are a bit different. They would rush to a church with good AC and nearer chairs, and abandon you if they feel their make ups and dresses will go bad in your church .
7. The hierarchy seems to be lax on issues of faith and morals. To see Bishops and priest giving awards to people who are notorious for crimes is not a good thing. It seems these days that there’s no line anymore.
