Maybe it is about time...

In recent weeks I have been deeply troubled by my perception of the state of the Catholic Church in the United States. When I was a child, Catholic families may have been a minority, but they were a very visible minority.
Catholics were the ones ordering the fish special in restaurants on Fridays even when the restaurant was a steak house. Catholics were the ones who invariably said, "Good morning Father" (or sister) whenever they passed a priest or religious sister on the street; and it was easy to spot the priests and religious because they always wore distinctive garb -- there was no doubt who they were. Catholics went to mass on Sunday and said grace before meals even in restaurants. Catholics crossed themselves and said a silent prayer if an ambulance went by.
In 1958, about 74% of Catholics attended weekly Mass. In its Data Composite Book for 2008, the Archdiocese of Chicago reports the "October Count" Mass attendance at 474,000 a week. That is just 20% of the reported Catholic population of 2,338,000 in the Archdiocese. The largest single religious denomination in Lake and Cook County, Illinois is non-practicing Catholics.
This is not news to the priests, deacons or lay people involved in the school and religious education programs around the archdiocese. For years we have witnessed the dynamic of parents who drop their children off for religious education classes but never seem to find their way into the church itself; couples who do not worship at any church, live together but want to have a full Catholic wedding; and parents who come requesting baptism for their children into a faith that they stopped practicing decades ago. Our parochial schools are more valued by some parents as inexpensive private education than as the Catholic schools they are intended to be.
For years our apparent response has been to say, "What'cha gonna do?" We trust God and pray that the grace of the sacraments might entice those who have fallen away into coming back. For this reason we have been hesitant to voice our reservations and made the sacraments readily available to those who do not value them.
I fear that the result of making these treasured sacraments readily available has been not to lure those who have fallen away back to the church, but rather to cheapen those sacraments in their eyes. You get what you pay for, therefore the sacraments cannot be of much value if they are offered so freely.
So again, "What'cha gonna do?" Perhaps it is time to focus our energies and resources on the "faithful remnant", that 20% who practice their faith. Where the lowering of standards in an attempt to be more "pastoral" has only continued the decline in the practice of the faith, perhaps the lived witness of the devoted few if fully supported may prove to be more efficacious in the process of evangelization and conversion.
Perhaps it will not work, but I know that continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results is insanity.