THE COLLAPSE OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
The result of an international survey reveals
that Christianity has no future in our society
By Tony Bushby
Without Prejudice
Without Prejudice
In October 2011, the Sinus Institute in Heidelberg, Germany published data revealing that in Germany alone ‘one million people intended to leave the Catholic or Protestant Church’ (‘Christ und Welt’ in the German weekly Die Zeit; Supplement). Extrapolating this figure world-wide on a per-population basis, the possible number of people abandoning the Christian religion extends into hundreds of millions. This remarkable finding prompted the team at Vatileaks to explore the decline in Church attendance and we conducted our own investigation to add to an accumulation of earlier information held in our archives in an effort to establish the true position of Christianity from a non-Church viewpoint.
Christianity’s dramatic fall from grace
In general, the results revealed that the loss of support for the Christian religion is universal and accelerating. Dioceses across the world are experiencing big departures, and many are in a state of complete collapse for lack of interest. It becomes clear that Christianity is haemorrhaging people at an unprecedented rate, and that raises the question about its immediate future. In Spain alone, three million people discarded Christianity in the last five years, with similar mass desertions taking place in other countries. Ongoing media coverage of the deepening crisis for the Church leaders is nothing new, as witnessed by the closing of hundreds of churches around the world and the rapid decline in attendance at Sunday Mass. On behalf of the Catholic Church, the Pope recently acknowledged the calamity, saying; ‘We are facing a deep crisis of faith, a loss of religious sense which poses the greatest challenge for the Church today’ (Pope Benedict XVI, January 17, 2012).
2500 people leaving UK churches ever week
The apostasy also affects the Protestant Church whose followers are leaving in droves, with only 8 people in every 1,000 in the UK now bothering to worship, and that number is ‘reducing by 2500 people every week’ (‘Does Christianity have a Future?’, BBC1, April 17th, 2011). If these figures continue to depreciate at this rate, then within five years there will be no Christian worshippers in the UK. When we compare the state of Christianity of around 60 years ago with today we see an unprecedented corrosion of followers as the mass departures spread. To handle the decline in churchgoers, an ‘Advisory Board for Redundant Churches’ was set up a while back to supervise the commercial tenancy or sale of unused and long-shuttered churches in that country.
Christianity’s dramatic fall from grace
In general, the results revealed that the loss of support for the Christian religion is universal and accelerating. Dioceses across the world are experiencing big departures, and many are in a state of complete collapse for lack of interest. It becomes clear that Christianity is haemorrhaging people at an unprecedented rate, and that raises the question about its immediate future. In Spain alone, three million people discarded Christianity in the last five years, with similar mass desertions taking place in other countries. Ongoing media coverage of the deepening crisis for the Church leaders is nothing new, as witnessed by the closing of hundreds of churches around the world and the rapid decline in attendance at Sunday Mass. On behalf of the Catholic Church, the Pope recently acknowledged the calamity, saying; ‘We are facing a deep crisis of faith, a loss of religious sense which poses the greatest challenge for the Church today’ (Pope Benedict XVI, January 17, 2012).
2500 people leaving UK churches ever week
The apostasy also affects the Protestant Church whose followers are leaving in droves, with only 8 people in every 1,000 in the UK now bothering to worship, and that number is ‘reducing by 2500 people every week’ (‘Does Christianity have a Future?’, BBC1, April 17th, 2011). If these figures continue to depreciate at this rate, then within five years there will be no Christian worshippers in the UK. When we compare the state of Christianity of around 60 years ago with today we see an unprecedented corrosion of followers as the mass departures spread. To handle the decline in churchgoers, an ‘Advisory Board for Redundant Churches’ was set up a while back to supervise the commercial tenancy or sale of unused and long-shuttered churches in that country.
A haunting picture of an abandoned church closed in 2006
Plunging income in Germany’s Church Tax
Figures like those of the UK reveal that the Christian faith is in terminal decline, and the worldwide downturn started more than two decades ago. On December 22nd, 2010 statistics released by the German media for individual dioceses in that country showed that tens of thousands of Catholics formally left the Church during 2009, and that was followed by nearly a 50% jump in 2010 (Associated Press, July 29th, 2011). The plunging departures seriously affects the Vatican’s income, for in Germany, people who officially separate from the Church are no longer obligated to pay the oft-criticized compulsory Church Tax that is automatically deducted from their salary. That levy on practicing Catholics was passed to the Vatican and believed to have been a massive US$850 million per year, with some researchers suggesting that the figure was much more. The only way for Germans to nullify payment is to renounce one’s religion, and that is happening in the tens of thousands, for figures released in the northern spring of 2010 by the German Conference of Bishops showed 125,585 departures in 2009, up from 121,155 in 2008. Figures released in July 2011 showed that 181,193 Catholics quit their memberships in 2010 and those figures remain below the 1992 peak of 192,766 departures under the papacy of Pope John Paul II. It is expected that when the 2011 figures are released, they will show a dramatic increase in the number of Catholics who formally left the Church, and the alarming 1992 figure is expected to be exceeded. For example, in 2010, the Augsburg diocese in Bavaria was particularly hard hit and disclosed that 12,065 Catholics cancelled their membership in that year, compared with 7,000 losses in 2009 of people who confessed to feeling disconnected from, and disillusioned by the Church.
The spiralling downtrend
Similar to the German system, Austria also taxes practicing Catholics, and thus the mounting number of people departing the Church can be regularly and accurately determined. In 2010, the diocese reported a significant drop in the number of supporters, with figures published by the Austrian Bishop’s Conference revealing that 87,000 Austrian Catholics no longer stayed with the Church, that being a 64 percent increase over the 53,000 people who formally struck their names off Church registries in 2009. The dramatic decline in numbers caused believers to call on the bishops for fundamental changes in the structure of the Church, with Catholic leaders already having indications that 2013 and 2014 will see an acceleration of the spiraling downward trend.
Figures like those of the UK reveal that the Christian faith is in terminal decline, and the worldwide downturn started more than two decades ago. On December 22nd, 2010 statistics released by the German media for individual dioceses in that country showed that tens of thousands of Catholics formally left the Church during 2009, and that was followed by nearly a 50% jump in 2010 (Associated Press, July 29th, 2011). The plunging departures seriously affects the Vatican’s income, for in Germany, people who officially separate from the Church are no longer obligated to pay the oft-criticized compulsory Church Tax that is automatically deducted from their salary. That levy on practicing Catholics was passed to the Vatican and believed to have been a massive US$850 million per year, with some researchers suggesting that the figure was much more. The only way for Germans to nullify payment is to renounce one’s religion, and that is happening in the tens of thousands, for figures released in the northern spring of 2010 by the German Conference of Bishops showed 125,585 departures in 2009, up from 121,155 in 2008. Figures released in July 2011 showed that 181,193 Catholics quit their memberships in 2010 and those figures remain below the 1992 peak of 192,766 departures under the papacy of Pope John Paul II. It is expected that when the 2011 figures are released, they will show a dramatic increase in the number of Catholics who formally left the Church, and the alarming 1992 figure is expected to be exceeded. For example, in 2010, the Augsburg diocese in Bavaria was particularly hard hit and disclosed that 12,065 Catholics cancelled their membership in that year, compared with 7,000 losses in 2009 of people who confessed to feeling disconnected from, and disillusioned by the Church.
The spiralling downtrend
Similar to the German system, Austria also taxes practicing Catholics, and thus the mounting number of people departing the Church can be regularly and accurately determined. In 2010, the diocese reported a significant drop in the number of supporters, with figures published by the Austrian Bishop’s Conference revealing that 87,000 Austrian Catholics no longer stayed with the Church, that being a 64 percent increase over the 53,000 people who formally struck their names off Church registries in 2009. The dramatic decline in numbers caused believers to call on the bishops for fundamental changes in the structure of the Church, with Catholic leaders already having indications that 2013 and 2014 will see an acceleration of the spiraling downward trend.
How they will respond is unknown, but the results of the Vatileaks survey confirmed a progressive and growing turning away from main Christian denominations, and this rejection is worldwide. The number of those who declare themselves as ‘belonging to the Church’ can be assessed by calculating the number of people who contribute money each week, but it is much less to discern why people are abandoning the Church. A broad synthesis of the study revealed that most people are leaving because they have found that they have no need for the Church and what one couple called the ‘irrelevant views’ that Christianity offers. The majority gave a specific reason for leaving, with many saying that they were just plain disillusioned by the overall attitude of the Church. Some said they had turned away solely because of the mind-set of the hierarchy, variously calling them ‘self-serving’, ‘detached’, ‘uninterested’, ‘arrogant’, ‘elitists’ and ‘insensitive’, describing some of them as only masquerading as holy men. One young man explained: ‘My wife and I realized that Christianity was not the right religion for us, mainly because it is managed by an out-of-touch group of old codgers’.
Opposition to the clergy
Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history and in this survey it surfaced strongly across the world, with one lady summing up the general feeling;
Opposition to the clergy
Anti-clericalism in one form or another has existed through most of Christian history and in this survey it surfaced strongly across the world, with one lady summing up the general feeling;
‘Bishops and priests think that they are intrinsically superior to church-goers and that they deserve automatic deference. Bishops in particular, have inflated opinions of themselves. Maybe that tight white collar makes their head swell and affects their thinking’.
Others attacked some Church officials for vesting themselves with ‘far more authority’ than they are meant to have, while others thought the hierarchs were engaged in a ‘wilful pursuit of control and power over the ordinary people’. A large percentage of people (68%) were not at all enthusiastic about their pastors and expressed concern that many priests were insincere. Another lady took a lighter approach: ‘The way the priesthood dress-up is so laughable. Those guys in the Vatican are really over the top. They must laugh at themselves when they are off-camera’.
Empty churches, full mosques
Quite often mosques are opening or extending in what used to be Christian church property, and in Belgium, the closure of dozens of Christian churches has prompted public debate on whether disused buildings should be offered to Muslims, many currently worshipping in inadequate or unsafe makeshift premises. Because of the common decline of Christianity, opinion is divided on whether finding a continuing use for redundant churches for the pursuit of faith, albeit a different faith is something to be welcomed in a secular age.
A recent 2009 USA study revealed that those who left the Church in that country outnumber those who joined by a margin of four-to-one, and that was before the 2010 European sex abuse scandals and the release of Ireland’s Cloyne Report that crashed into public consciousness in July 2011. A surprise result was the number of people who had abandoned the parish and the Church altogether, yet around one-quarter of the respondents had detached from the parish, but not from the Church.
Two-thirds drop-off in Catholic support
Much of the media coverage about the slump is centred on the Vatican, maybe because of its corporate culture and its hierarchal power structure. People turning away from Catholicism outnumbered baptisms, which reached a record low, putting the world’s wealthiest and most influential Church further in decline. The figures show a plummeting slump and, however viewed, they must cause great consternation behind closed doors in the corporate boardroom at the Papal Palace in Vatican City. The Church of Rome alleges that there are three-quarters of a billion Catholics that profess to believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate, but that number is rapidly crumbling to what some researchers now estimate to be less than one third of that figure. One would think that any institution that lost two-thirds of its supporters would want to know the reason for this, but the U.S. bishops refused to support research on why people are leaving the Church. Maybe they were in denial, but in April 2011, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life took the bull by the horns and put hard numbers on the anecdotal evidence. Among the result was evidence that one in three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.
The Christian ‘holocaust’
Researchers have known about the extent of the mass departures for some time and discovered that it is not just a Catholic or Protestant phenomenon, but the same predicament applies to almost all other mainline Christian denominations. Two-thirds of those raised in the Church of the Latter-day Saints (Jehovah’s Witnesses) say they are no longer members, and in percentage terms that relates to double the losses of the Catholic Church. However, it seems that new Jehovah recruits are building the numbers back up again. Studies also report that while American people in general ‘change religious affiliation early and often’ (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 2008), Catholicism has especially suffered from the trend, experiencing ‘the greatest net loss’ (ibid) of any major religious group. An announcement by the same authority in that same survey revealed that there are 22 million ex-Catholics in America, by far the greatest drop-off for any religious body in that country (‘Religious Landscape Survey’, Pew Forum, 2008). Since the publication of those results, hundreds of thousands more have left Catholicism in the USA and Europe, and it is clear from the precise figures available in Germany that the number of Christian church-goers is contracting dramatically.
Signs of a sick Church
A major reason people are leaving is because of the epidemic of paedophile priests freely operating in the Christian Church, and what has not yet been fully comprehended is that underneath the anger and rejection of ex-believers is a deep sense of betrayal. Words that come to mind about how people are feeling about paedophilia in the Church are; disbelief, disillusionment, disappointment, disgust, revulsion, confusion, and sorrow. These are just some of the myriad of emotions expressed by Catholics in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that broke during the papacy of Pope John Paul II. We have all heard of the rampant sexual abuse of children within both the Catholic and Protestant churches and of attempts by many of the clergy to exercise influence to conceal the crimes with evidence of the extent of the cover-ups going all the way to popes, but we have heard very little about the impact on the crisis on the mindset of Christians themselves. This is one typical comment: ‘I have lost my faith in not only the Catholic Church, but also in God’, said Jennifer, whose 14-year-old son committed suicide in 1997 after being repeatedly raped by a Vatican priest. Cumulatively, a dark message is being heard across the world from the fallout of paedophilia in the priesthood, and the signs are that more and more Catholics appear to have reached their limit with this un-Christian behaviour. It is public knowledge that the Vatican is in upheaval over these crimes, and its hierarchy seems oblivious to the growing reaction to its poisonous association with a paedophilia scandal that is growing judicially around the world and has scandalized the faithful, producing an exodus that has stunned the Holy See.
The Vatican itself admitted that the scandals triggered a steep drop in donations, a falling away of potential benefactors, and a growing number of people who have openly admitted that they have ‘distanced’ themselves from the Church. This opinion was supported in a comment by Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author and ex-Catholic, who caused uproar when she publicly stated that the Catholic Church ‘is not an institution for respectable people’ (The Telegraph, May 14, 2012). Around the same time, a group called the ‘Freedom from Religion Foundation’ ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post cast as an ‘open letter to ‘liberal’ and ‘nominal’ Catholics’. Its headline commanded: ‘It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church’ (The Herald News).
Falling moral principles
The Holy Mother Church is revealed as a body of supposed ‘priestly’ people who have been guilty of violence and abuse against their own believers. By their own actions, the priesthood is self-condemned, with the reality being that not only is Christian theology bankrupt, but the whole Christian system is bankrupt, and Catholics are the suffering victims of a system to which they financially contribute. Not surprisingly, the latest opinion polls reveal that few men and women under the age of forty have much respect for Catholicism, although in some small villages and towns, there are pockets of belief where the impact of the sex abuse crisis has not yet been felt. People are certainly more sceptical and more cynical about the way the Church is run and the way the priesthood use and exploit power. Believers expressed the view that they ‘believe in God but they don’t believe in the Church’, and the reality of the matter is that ‘people’ constitute the Church, and they are the reasons after all, for parishes existing.
The dogma dilemma
The Holy See is no longer dealing with an illiterate, uneducated laity, and ‘ordinary people’ are actively doing their own research into the nature of the Bible and the presentation of Christian origins. From people’s growing awareness, one of the central findings of the latest studies reveals that a staggering majority of 66 percent of Catholics say that they drifted away from the Church because they didn’t believe the Gospel stories as preached to them (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 2008). The general populace now knows that the Christian scriptures have no historical value, and with that knowledge they no longer inhale the mystical smokescreens the Church developed to conceal the forged nature of its Gospels:
Empty churches, full mosques
Quite often mosques are opening or extending in what used to be Christian church property, and in Belgium, the closure of dozens of Christian churches has prompted public debate on whether disused buildings should be offered to Muslims, many currently worshipping in inadequate or unsafe makeshift premises. Because of the common decline of Christianity, opinion is divided on whether finding a continuing use for redundant churches for the pursuit of faith, albeit a different faith is something to be welcomed in a secular age.
A recent 2009 USA study revealed that those who left the Church in that country outnumber those who joined by a margin of four-to-one, and that was before the 2010 European sex abuse scandals and the release of Ireland’s Cloyne Report that crashed into public consciousness in July 2011. A surprise result was the number of people who had abandoned the parish and the Church altogether, yet around one-quarter of the respondents had detached from the parish, but not from the Church.
Two-thirds drop-off in Catholic support
Much of the media coverage about the slump is centred on the Vatican, maybe because of its corporate culture and its hierarchal power structure. People turning away from Catholicism outnumbered baptisms, which reached a record low, putting the world’s wealthiest and most influential Church further in decline. The figures show a plummeting slump and, however viewed, they must cause great consternation behind closed doors in the corporate boardroom at the Papal Palace in Vatican City. The Church of Rome alleges that there are three-quarters of a billion Catholics that profess to believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate, but that number is rapidly crumbling to what some researchers now estimate to be less than one third of that figure. One would think that any institution that lost two-thirds of its supporters would want to know the reason for this, but the U.S. bishops refused to support research on why people are leaving the Church. Maybe they were in denial, but in April 2011, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life took the bull by the horns and put hard numbers on the anecdotal evidence. Among the result was evidence that one in three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic.
The Christian ‘holocaust’
Researchers have known about the extent of the mass departures for some time and discovered that it is not just a Catholic or Protestant phenomenon, but the same predicament applies to almost all other mainline Christian denominations. Two-thirds of those raised in the Church of the Latter-day Saints (Jehovah’s Witnesses) say they are no longer members, and in percentage terms that relates to double the losses of the Catholic Church. However, it seems that new Jehovah recruits are building the numbers back up again. Studies also report that while American people in general ‘change religious affiliation early and often’ (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 2008), Catholicism has especially suffered from the trend, experiencing ‘the greatest net loss’ (ibid) of any major religious group. An announcement by the same authority in that same survey revealed that there are 22 million ex-Catholics in America, by far the greatest drop-off for any religious body in that country (‘Religious Landscape Survey’, Pew Forum, 2008). Since the publication of those results, hundreds of thousands more have left Catholicism in the USA and Europe, and it is clear from the precise figures available in Germany that the number of Christian church-goers is contracting dramatically.
Signs of a sick Church
A major reason people are leaving is because of the epidemic of paedophile priests freely operating in the Christian Church, and what has not yet been fully comprehended is that underneath the anger and rejection of ex-believers is a deep sense of betrayal. Words that come to mind about how people are feeling about paedophilia in the Church are; disbelief, disillusionment, disappointment, disgust, revulsion, confusion, and sorrow. These are just some of the myriad of emotions expressed by Catholics in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal that broke during the papacy of Pope John Paul II. We have all heard of the rampant sexual abuse of children within both the Catholic and Protestant churches and of attempts by many of the clergy to exercise influence to conceal the crimes with evidence of the extent of the cover-ups going all the way to popes, but we have heard very little about the impact on the crisis on the mindset of Christians themselves. This is one typical comment: ‘I have lost my faith in not only the Catholic Church, but also in God’, said Jennifer, whose 14-year-old son committed suicide in 1997 after being repeatedly raped by a Vatican priest. Cumulatively, a dark message is being heard across the world from the fallout of paedophilia in the priesthood, and the signs are that more and more Catholics appear to have reached their limit with this un-Christian behaviour. It is public knowledge that the Vatican is in upheaval over these crimes, and its hierarchy seems oblivious to the growing reaction to its poisonous association with a paedophilia scandal that is growing judicially around the world and has scandalized the faithful, producing an exodus that has stunned the Holy See.
The Vatican itself admitted that the scandals triggered a steep drop in donations, a falling away of potential benefactors, and a growing number of people who have openly admitted that they have ‘distanced’ themselves from the Church. This opinion was supported in a comment by Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author and ex-Catholic, who caused uproar when she publicly stated that the Catholic Church ‘is not an institution for respectable people’ (The Telegraph, May 14, 2012). Around the same time, a group called the ‘Freedom from Religion Foundation’ ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post cast as an ‘open letter to ‘liberal’ and ‘nominal’ Catholics’. Its headline commanded: ‘It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church’ (The Herald News).
Falling moral principles
The Holy Mother Church is revealed as a body of supposed ‘priestly’ people who have been guilty of violence and abuse against their own believers. By their own actions, the priesthood is self-condemned, with the reality being that not only is Christian theology bankrupt, but the whole Christian system is bankrupt, and Catholics are the suffering victims of a system to which they financially contribute. Not surprisingly, the latest opinion polls reveal that few men and women under the age of forty have much respect for Catholicism, although in some small villages and towns, there are pockets of belief where the impact of the sex abuse crisis has not yet been felt. People are certainly more sceptical and more cynical about the way the Church is run and the way the priesthood use and exploit power. Believers expressed the view that they ‘believe in God but they don’t believe in the Church’, and the reality of the matter is that ‘people’ constitute the Church, and they are the reasons after all, for parishes existing.
The dogma dilemma
The Holy See is no longer dealing with an illiterate, uneducated laity, and ‘ordinary people’ are actively doing their own research into the nature of the Bible and the presentation of Christian origins. From people’s growing awareness, one of the central findings of the latest studies reveals that a staggering majority of 66 percent of Catholics say that they drifted away from the Church because they didn’t believe the Gospel stories as preached to them (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 2008). The general populace now knows that the Christian scriptures have no historical value, and with that knowledge they no longer inhale the mystical smokescreens the Church developed to conceal the forged nature of its Gospels:
‘The non-Christian world knows that the New Testament is fabricated nonsense, falsely presented, and without an historical basis. Christians have not noticed the collapse of academic support within their own Church for the fundamentalist projection of the New Testament. Put simply, Christianity’s most cherished beliefs are myths. The very fact that dozens of First Century historians knew nothing about a special religious crucifixion worthy of mention reveals that there wasn’t one. The absence of this supposed dramatic event is conspicuously absent from the records of every noted writer of the time, yet Christians overlook the evidence of history and quote New Testament narratives as if they are historical. The records of history demonstrate over and over again that the Christian Gospels are nothing more than an un-historic compilation of ancient pagan myths and that information is recorded in the Church’s own records [The Life of Constantine, Eusebius[. Each Gospel is an unhistorical farrago of nonsense, and so silly that it is probable those future generations will read them for a bit of light-hearted fun’.
(‘Christ on Trial’, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012)
A growing gap exists between official Church dogma and the thoughts of many people who reject those preaching’s because they have discovered for themselves that they are untrue. The truth of the matter is that with the Church’s presentation of the origin of the Christian religion we are looking at a network of deception, an organized and deeply hidden cover-up that has now started to surface right across the world. The theological and scriptural shallowness that developed from the inclusion of fictitious narratives in the Gospels has now been summarized and addressed, and therein lies another reason for the dramatic drop-off in support for the Christian religion.
Signs of despair
Younger people of today are not interested in what it offers because their own study has taught them of the Church’s past and the schemes it created to become what it is today. They also know that the papacy is a mischievous institution, and its true history is one of scandals, swindles, forgeries, warfare, cruelty, extortion, debauchery, worldliness, and moral depravity. ‘Popes sought to conceal Christianity’s true origins with an orchestrated system of cover-ups and deceptions, and authorized the forging of Church council records now confessed to be ‘entirely legendary’ (‘Christ on Trial’, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012). People have also learnt that the joyful applause with which the Vatican salutes the fortunes of centuries of popes is purposely misrepresented in fake Vatican literature published to purposely mislead people.
Distress about alterations to new Bibles
In this more enlightened world in which we now live, the team at Vatileaks also learnt that 59 percent of Catholic’s recently polled in Europe expressed amazement at the Vatican’s ongoing alterations to narratives in the Bible, with special reference to Pope John Paul II’s promulgation of a ‘New Vulgate’ in 1979 that has now been established as vastly different from the one that it replaced. In this regard, anybody comparing the wording of the world’s oldest New Testament in the Sinaiticus Bible against any modern-day Bible will find a staggering 14,800 later editorial embellishments in newer editions, mainly in the Gospels (‘Christ on Trial’, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012). This research is simple to do, and every person should undertake this for a personal confirmation that the Gospels have had a long history of ‘interpolations’ and fictitious additions. One young couple offered this comment;
Signs of despair
Younger people of today are not interested in what it offers because their own study has taught them of the Church’s past and the schemes it created to become what it is today. They also know that the papacy is a mischievous institution, and its true history is one of scandals, swindles, forgeries, warfare, cruelty, extortion, debauchery, worldliness, and moral depravity. ‘Popes sought to conceal Christianity’s true origins with an orchestrated system of cover-ups and deceptions, and authorized the forging of Church council records now confessed to be ‘entirely legendary’ (‘Christ on Trial’, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012). People have also learnt that the joyful applause with which the Vatican salutes the fortunes of centuries of popes is purposely misrepresented in fake Vatican literature published to purposely mislead people.
Distress about alterations to new Bibles
In this more enlightened world in which we now live, the team at Vatileaks also learnt that 59 percent of Catholic’s recently polled in Europe expressed amazement at the Vatican’s ongoing alterations to narratives in the Bible, with special reference to Pope John Paul II’s promulgation of a ‘New Vulgate’ in 1979 that has now been established as vastly different from the one that it replaced. In this regard, anybody comparing the wording of the world’s oldest New Testament in the Sinaiticus Bible against any modern-day Bible will find a staggering 14,800 later editorial embellishments in newer editions, mainly in the Gospels (‘Christ on Trial’, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012). This research is simple to do, and every person should undertake this for a personal confirmation that the Gospels have had a long history of ‘interpolations’ and fictitious additions. One young couple offered this comment;
‘We know that the Church has whitewashed its history, therefore, we say, what right have popes got to tell us how to live our lives when they can’t even provide evidence for the existence of a divine savior’.
(‘The Christ Scandal’, Tony Bushby, Stanford House Publishing, 2008)
Obviously, the Vatican would love to marginalize public attention to that particular issue right out of existence, and maybe that is why some alarming figures are not openly published by the Church. For example, Catholic administrators tried to suppress the results of a private survey conducted in churches in Italy in 2009 that revealed that more than 37% of Catholics who regularly attended church in that country believe in reincarnation, not resurrection, as preached in Christianity. Maybe they are aware that their Holy Mother Church deleted the original reincarnation verses from the earlier Gospels at the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553, and as a result of this, and other Gospel modifications, Christianity today preaches resurrection, not reincarnation (The Christ Scandal, Tony Bushby, Stanford House Publishing, 2008). From that knowledge alone, one comes to realize that the Christian religion represents a kind of hypocrisy, and that is another reason causing people to leave in droves, with some trying to find a similar religion with integrity and truth.
What the Pope said
Another recent USA survey conducted in Catholic churches across America concluded that in the 18-month period of mid-2009 to the end of 2010, ‘true believers’ diminished significantly, and from the results, one Catholic author opined that with such a large depletion of people it was difficult to find anyone in the Church of Rome who honestly fitted the description of a ‘true believer’. In his annual address to cardinals and the Roman Curia on December 20th, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI admitted that Christianity had ‘grown tired’ and called upon Catholics to reawaken their faith. One must then ask: ‘How can they do that when the Church itself has let them down and their own popes are active and willing conspirators in the Vatican’s ongoing child sex scandal cover-ups?’
Another reason given for leaving the Church was the poor quality of homilies:
What the Pope said
Another recent USA survey conducted in Catholic churches across America concluded that in the 18-month period of mid-2009 to the end of 2010, ‘true believers’ diminished significantly, and from the results, one Catholic author opined that with such a large depletion of people it was difficult to find anyone in the Church of Rome who honestly fitted the description of a ‘true believer’. In his annual address to cardinals and the Roman Curia on December 20th, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI admitted that Christianity had ‘grown tired’ and called upon Catholics to reawaken their faith. One must then ask: ‘How can they do that when the Church itself has let them down and their own popes are active and willing conspirators in the Vatican’s ongoing child sex scandal cover-ups?’
Another reason given for leaving the Church was the poor quality of homilies:
‘I always felt that the homily was divorced from reality. The clergy seemed to be trying to draw attention away from the priest sex abuse history and onto money and the economic problems in the Church as a diversion. I don’t think anyone noticed that I left the Church, and I actually felt relieved to have made the decision’.
The Church’s preoccupation with money was raised by 81% of the respondents, with comments like this; ‘I left because the sermons were hollow and most of the talk was about raising money’. A 21-year old woman added: ‘I really felt unappreciated. I am sure they wouldn’t have missed me after I stopped attending Church, but maybe they missed my weekly contribution’.
Ethically bankrupt priests
In America, people’s assessment of priesthood morality has never been positive, but the current rating reveals that they are not considered ethical paragons of society. Before the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted during the papacy of John Paul II, two-thirds of Americans considered the moral values of ‘men of the cloth’ as ‘quite high’. However, a Gallup Poll conducted in 2010 (between November 19th and 21st) and released on the 3rd December, 2010 revealed a third of Americans now consider the clergy’s morals as ‘average’, and 8 percent rated them ‘poor’, the lowest percentage numbers of the priesthood in Gallup’s three decades of measuring professional reputations.
Why people are abandoning the Christian religion
When Christians were asked about what it was that may have led them to consider leaving the Church, the responses were many and varied. The issue of reform came into focus with this comment that, in general, covers the thoughts of many recipients;
Ethically bankrupt priests
In America, people’s assessment of priesthood morality has never been positive, but the current rating reveals that they are not considered ethical paragons of society. Before the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted during the papacy of John Paul II, two-thirds of Americans considered the moral values of ‘men of the cloth’ as ‘quite high’. However, a Gallup Poll conducted in 2010 (between November 19th and 21st) and released on the 3rd December, 2010 revealed a third of Americans now consider the clergy’s morals as ‘average’, and 8 percent rated them ‘poor’, the lowest percentage numbers of the priesthood in Gallup’s three decades of measuring professional reputations.
Why people are abandoning the Christian religion
When Christians were asked about what it was that may have led them to consider leaving the Church, the responses were many and varied. The issue of reform came into focus with this comment that, in general, covers the thoughts of many recipients;
‘The signs of collapse are already there, and it is clear that we are living in a time of enormous change for the Church. The hierarchy must acknowledge this and accelerate the calls for reform to move with the times. Transformation is the Church’s only hope’.
Also listed as reasons for leaving the Church are other matters, not only the ‘overt and covert abuse of us all’ (National Catholic Reporter, December, 26th, 2010) by the clerical child sex abuse scandals, but other matters of concern, such as; feigned clerical celibacy; dissatisfaction with the Church’s position on abortion and homosexuality; teachings on birth control; unhappiness with teachings on divorce and remarriage, and a rarely discussed issue is the fact that it is most probable that many Catholics who have left the Church of Rome have done so because of the Vatican’s stance on marriage and divorce. Then there is the Holy See’s treatment of women, an issue that was inflamed by Pope John Paul II’s pronouncement that women would never be ordained, and that Catholics were forbidden to even think or speak about such an eventuality.
The burning issue facing the Church
Extensive downsizing of churches the world over has accelerated, particularly in the last few years, as week after week bishops preside over parish closings and falling attendances. Recently (August, 2009 – June, 2010), in Cleveland, Ohio, a bishop closed 27 parishes and merged 41 others into a reduced number of 18 parishes, the ‘realignment’ being partly the result of the dramatic drop-off in supporters with only single-digit Mass attendances, dwindling Sunday cash collections, and partly the result of financial problems. Recent statistics composed by the Catholic Church in the USA revealed that around 600 priests resign every year, and an average of 60 parishes close forever. In the Archdiocese of Boston in the 1960s, there were 400 parishes and 1500 priests, and today, there are 290 parishes and less than 500 priests, many nearing retirement age. Over 1,800 US parishes have closed since 1990, and added to this, the number of new priests entering the priesthood has declined to the point that Pope Benedict XVI recently engaged the services of an employment agency to provide temporary ‘stand-in’ priests to conduct mass.
No priests
Priestly vocations are declining internationally, while the age of priests is increasing. In the UK, for example the average priest is 63 years old, and in the USA it is almost 60 years. In Catholicism, married and women priests are precluded, increasing the risk that more predator priests will be ordained from the diminishing pool of seminarians. The shrinking number of priests is dramatic, a prime example being in Germany where 99 priests were ordained in 2010, yet in the early 1960s more than 500 entered into the Church in West Germany alone. In July, 2011, the diocese of Dublin announced that not a single priest was ordained in that year, or this year of 2012, reflecting a stunning decline for an establishment that once virtually ruled the country. What a growing understanding of the Church’s false presentation of its origins means to the future of Christianity is obvious, and the mass exodus supports Pope Ratzinger’s prophecy of a Church that ‘will no longer be able to fill many of the buildings created in her period of great splendor’ (Time Magazine, by Jeff Israely and Howard Chua-Eoan, June 7th, 2010, p. 19). It also supports the Secret of Fatima that prophesied the demise of Christianity from within its own ranks with a series of actions that create overt hostility across a broad swath of secular society.
Why is Christianity needed?
It is no secret that in recent decades the Vatican’s once esteemed reputation has collapsed, especially in westernized nations. Catholic-conducted surveys look at the problems in Catholicism through rose-coloured glasses and talk of ‘new beginnings’ and ‘reconciliation’, hoping they will be soon be rejoicing in a fresh Catholic Church renewed and reinvigorated across the world. They assume that the Church is needed, but the results of the Vatileaks survey revealed that the Church is now generally seen as irrelevant in today’s society. Whatever the priesthood say about their role in Christianity, the Church has lost its moral authority, and respect for the Vatican hierarchy has diminished to a point where people don’t take notice anymore. The Holy See’s authority has all but evaporated, and its previous culture of fear and dependency has dissolved to the point that only 4% of Catholics polled believe in the absolute teaching authority of the Vatican. In this respect, Church hierarchs don’t seem to have yet realized that their flock is comprised of a diverse range of political ideologies and beliefs and they are not going to march in unison with every position that the Church leaders choose to advocate. It became apparent in the Vatileak’s survey that individuals living in today’s free society don’t change their opinions just because a Pope comes out and makes a statement.
Papal disinformation
In February 2011, Pope Benedict XVI was presented with the latest edition of the Vatican’s ‘Annuario Pontificio’ or pontifical yearbook, and it was noted within it that the number of Catholics in the world edged up by 1 percent in 2009. We should remember that the Vatican’s language is freighted with disinformation, and this statistic was unsupported by any valid source material. Simply put, it was an overly optimistic estimate of a hopeful increase in the numbers of Catholics in Africa and Asia and it should be considered only as a statement of ‘faith’, not reality. This statistic reveals nothing concrete, being the Vatican’s attempt to create an illusion of progress in the Church, and like ‘faith’ it should be seen as just ‘wishful thinking’ (Christ on Trial, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012).
Events catching up to the papacy
Another Vatican problem about which little is said is the fact that, like all newspaper groups across the world, the Catholic press is facing growing challenges from tumbling advertising revenues, declining subscriptions and strong competition from Internet sites. Papal visits are now merely symbolic, a novelty carrying no more weight than visits by members of the UK’s Royal Family. Crowds attending papal visits have diminished to only the dedicated faithful, with Catholic school children taken along to build up the numbers. Of course, ‘pope addicts’ who get their ‘fix’ on ‘Popium’, whoever or wherever he may be, will always be there. This drop-off of support started emerging some two decades ago, as shown by the dramatically smaller crowds that showed up in Europe when John Paul II returned to a country that he had previously visited. For example, when he visited Prague in May 1995, 940,000 fewer Czechs attended mass in the city stadium than the number at his 1990 visit just five years earlier.
The Vatican’s perceived discrimination against women by the all-male hierarchy figured highly in our poll. The issue of priestly celibacy was often raised, with many people doubting that priests are serious about intending to remain celibate when they take their oath. Another issue was that of open homosexuality amongst the priesthood and this was seen by many as unacceptable in a clergyman. Many believed that the Vatican concentrates too much on abortion at the expense of more important problems, such as the plague of paedophile priests and the issues of questionable dogma, particularly the increasing doubts about the reality of the resurrection of the Gospel Jesus Christ.
Is there any reason for Christians to be hopeful in these dark hours?
When asked for opinions about what changes the Church would need to introduce to induce the defectors to return, many said that being able to express their view would make them feel better. Others stressed the need for fundamental hierarchical reform, with one person adding this comment: ‘The only way the Church will change is by dialogue, not by its current attitude that ‘you will be told what to do’’. Many wanted to be heard, something denied them, and there were those who expressed bitterness about not being consulted on problems affecting parish issues;
The burning issue facing the Church
Extensive downsizing of churches the world over has accelerated, particularly in the last few years, as week after week bishops preside over parish closings and falling attendances. Recently (August, 2009 – June, 2010), in Cleveland, Ohio, a bishop closed 27 parishes and merged 41 others into a reduced number of 18 parishes, the ‘realignment’ being partly the result of the dramatic drop-off in supporters with only single-digit Mass attendances, dwindling Sunday cash collections, and partly the result of financial problems. Recent statistics composed by the Catholic Church in the USA revealed that around 600 priests resign every year, and an average of 60 parishes close forever. In the Archdiocese of Boston in the 1960s, there were 400 parishes and 1500 priests, and today, there are 290 parishes and less than 500 priests, many nearing retirement age. Over 1,800 US parishes have closed since 1990, and added to this, the number of new priests entering the priesthood has declined to the point that Pope Benedict XVI recently engaged the services of an employment agency to provide temporary ‘stand-in’ priests to conduct mass.
No priests
Priestly vocations are declining internationally, while the age of priests is increasing. In the UK, for example the average priest is 63 years old, and in the USA it is almost 60 years. In Catholicism, married and women priests are precluded, increasing the risk that more predator priests will be ordained from the diminishing pool of seminarians. The shrinking number of priests is dramatic, a prime example being in Germany where 99 priests were ordained in 2010, yet in the early 1960s more than 500 entered into the Church in West Germany alone. In July, 2011, the diocese of Dublin announced that not a single priest was ordained in that year, or this year of 2012, reflecting a stunning decline for an establishment that once virtually ruled the country. What a growing understanding of the Church’s false presentation of its origins means to the future of Christianity is obvious, and the mass exodus supports Pope Ratzinger’s prophecy of a Church that ‘will no longer be able to fill many of the buildings created in her period of great splendor’ (Time Magazine, by Jeff Israely and Howard Chua-Eoan, June 7th, 2010, p. 19). It also supports the Secret of Fatima that prophesied the demise of Christianity from within its own ranks with a series of actions that create overt hostility across a broad swath of secular society.
Why is Christianity needed?
It is no secret that in recent decades the Vatican’s once esteemed reputation has collapsed, especially in westernized nations. Catholic-conducted surveys look at the problems in Catholicism through rose-coloured glasses and talk of ‘new beginnings’ and ‘reconciliation’, hoping they will be soon be rejoicing in a fresh Catholic Church renewed and reinvigorated across the world. They assume that the Church is needed, but the results of the Vatileaks survey revealed that the Church is now generally seen as irrelevant in today’s society. Whatever the priesthood say about their role in Christianity, the Church has lost its moral authority, and respect for the Vatican hierarchy has diminished to a point where people don’t take notice anymore. The Holy See’s authority has all but evaporated, and its previous culture of fear and dependency has dissolved to the point that only 4% of Catholics polled believe in the absolute teaching authority of the Vatican. In this respect, Church hierarchs don’t seem to have yet realized that their flock is comprised of a diverse range of political ideologies and beliefs and they are not going to march in unison with every position that the Church leaders choose to advocate. It became apparent in the Vatileak’s survey that individuals living in today’s free society don’t change their opinions just because a Pope comes out and makes a statement.
Papal disinformation
In February 2011, Pope Benedict XVI was presented with the latest edition of the Vatican’s ‘Annuario Pontificio’ or pontifical yearbook, and it was noted within it that the number of Catholics in the world edged up by 1 percent in 2009. We should remember that the Vatican’s language is freighted with disinformation, and this statistic was unsupported by any valid source material. Simply put, it was an overly optimistic estimate of a hopeful increase in the numbers of Catholics in Africa and Asia and it should be considered only as a statement of ‘faith’, not reality. This statistic reveals nothing concrete, being the Vatican’s attempt to create an illusion of progress in the Church, and like ‘faith’ it should be seen as just ‘wishful thinking’ (Christ on Trial, Tony Bushby, Vatileaks Publishing, 2012).
Events catching up to the papacy
Another Vatican problem about which little is said is the fact that, like all newspaper groups across the world, the Catholic press is facing growing challenges from tumbling advertising revenues, declining subscriptions and strong competition from Internet sites. Papal visits are now merely symbolic, a novelty carrying no more weight than visits by members of the UK’s Royal Family. Crowds attending papal visits have diminished to only the dedicated faithful, with Catholic school children taken along to build up the numbers. Of course, ‘pope addicts’ who get their ‘fix’ on ‘Popium’, whoever or wherever he may be, will always be there. This drop-off of support started emerging some two decades ago, as shown by the dramatically smaller crowds that showed up in Europe when John Paul II returned to a country that he had previously visited. For example, when he visited Prague in May 1995, 940,000 fewer Czechs attended mass in the city stadium than the number at his 1990 visit just five years earlier.
The Vatican’s perceived discrimination against women by the all-male hierarchy figured highly in our poll. The issue of priestly celibacy was often raised, with many people doubting that priests are serious about intending to remain celibate when they take their oath. Another issue was that of open homosexuality amongst the priesthood and this was seen by many as unacceptable in a clergyman. Many believed that the Vatican concentrates too much on abortion at the expense of more important problems, such as the plague of paedophile priests and the issues of questionable dogma, particularly the increasing doubts about the reality of the resurrection of the Gospel Jesus Christ.
Is there any reason for Christians to be hopeful in these dark hours?
When asked for opinions about what changes the Church would need to introduce to induce the defectors to return, many said that being able to express their view would make them feel better. Others stressed the need for fundamental hierarchical reform, with one person adding this comment: ‘The only way the Church will change is by dialogue, not by its current attitude that ‘you will be told what to do’’. Many wanted to be heard, something denied them, and there were those who expressed bitterness about not being consulted on problems affecting parish issues;
‘We were never asked for our opinion, even though we made regularly contributions of cash that we could never really afford. We were never thanked, and in the end, we felt that the Church just used us for monetary gain’.
One Catholic administrator added this sobering advice to his fellow believers: ’If you think you can change the Church from within, then you are deluding yourself. The overall challenge is not just about the problems of child sex abuse, for there are issues that go much deeper. The priesthood in Austria, for example, is rising up against the Vatican and a schism is looming right there. There are divisions within the Church at many levels, and some of those divisions can only be described as very unhealthy. As Catholics, we need a much deeper reform in the Church’.
Time to clean the Augean stables
There are Christians who are clinging on to their Church by their fingertips, watching attendances going backwards. As the Church’s actions become more open to public scrutiny, more and more diverse Catholic voices are now harmonizing in an ever-increasing song calling for fundamental hierarchical reform in the Catholic Church. The list of specific things that could encourage Catholics to consider returning into the fold was quite broad, but high on the list was the acceptance of divorced and remarried people. Also of importance was a wish for the introduction of ‘intelligent sermons’ presented by humane and humble priests. There was also a desire for the priesthood to show some ‘common respect’ to ordinary church-goers. Some also expressed a longing for more transparency, and insisted on ongoing support for those people sexually abused by priests. In other words, disillusioned Catholics want a clean-out in the Church, but it is doubtful that they will get it.
The past is not forgotten
There was something else alluded to with embarrassment, and that was the criminal history of Christianity. One man said; ‘I used to love the Church, but after reading of its past, it just hurt me too much to stay in it’. People are now discovering for themselves that Church hierarchs conceal deep secrets about the development of the Christian religion. Modern communication techniques are allowing the drawing back of the veil on an ecclesiastical institution that has a dark history now revealing that popes were notorious for every species of profligacy and persecution of religious minority groups ever known to mankind. One response to the Church’s past was this: ‘How could this have happened in a Church that wants us to believe that it developed from love and light?’
For centuries, the Church persecuted its opponents, and the records of history reveal the horror of the ‘Catholic crusades’ (1096-1571), the Extermination Decrees issued against followers of John Wycliffe (d. 1384; Wyclifites) and John Huss (d. 1415), and the Vatican’s notorious ‘Holy Inquisition’ that slayed millions of honest opponents of its creed and policy. A lady in London added this comment:
Time to clean the Augean stables
There are Christians who are clinging on to their Church by their fingertips, watching attendances going backwards. As the Church’s actions become more open to public scrutiny, more and more diverse Catholic voices are now harmonizing in an ever-increasing song calling for fundamental hierarchical reform in the Catholic Church. The list of specific things that could encourage Catholics to consider returning into the fold was quite broad, but high on the list was the acceptance of divorced and remarried people. Also of importance was a wish for the introduction of ‘intelligent sermons’ presented by humane and humble priests. There was also a desire for the priesthood to show some ‘common respect’ to ordinary church-goers. Some also expressed a longing for more transparency, and insisted on ongoing support for those people sexually abused by priests. In other words, disillusioned Catholics want a clean-out in the Church, but it is doubtful that they will get it.
The past is not forgotten
There was something else alluded to with embarrassment, and that was the criminal history of Christianity. One man said; ‘I used to love the Church, but after reading of its past, it just hurt me too much to stay in it’. People are now discovering for themselves that Church hierarchs conceal deep secrets about the development of the Christian religion. Modern communication techniques are allowing the drawing back of the veil on an ecclesiastical institution that has a dark history now revealing that popes were notorious for every species of profligacy and persecution of religious minority groups ever known to mankind. One response to the Church’s past was this: ‘How could this have happened in a Church that wants us to believe that it developed from love and light?’
For centuries, the Church persecuted its opponents, and the records of history reveal the horror of the ‘Catholic crusades’ (1096-1571), the Extermination Decrees issued against followers of John Wycliffe (d. 1384; Wyclifites) and John Huss (d. 1415), and the Vatican’s notorious ‘Holy Inquisition’ that slayed millions of honest opponents of its creed and policy. A lady in London added this comment:
‘It is amazing to me that our popes of the past could take religion and turn it into such an ugly spectacle’.
Her comments were taken as a reference to the Inquisition. ‘It is distressing when people use religion as an excuse to hurt each other’, said a saddened old man in Connecticut, USA. People today are fully aware of the fact that bloodshed was an integral part of the development of the Christian religion, and that included the Church’s unabashed slaughter of the Albigensians, a pious body of people who did not believe Christian dogma. An elderly Catholic lady added this thought-provoking comment: ‘It is astounding to me that hate and war can come from religion when the basic ideas in all religions are love and unity’.
The death knell tolls for Christianity
Christianity is withering on the vine, and it is fair to say that the culmination of the paedophilia scandal and the exposure of forged narratives in the Gospels has accelerated the exodus of millions of people from the Church that has snowballed to proportions that Christian hierarchs today must be saying to themselves; ‘What the hell are we going to do?’ In summary, the undertakers are gathering in readiness to drive the nails into Christianity’s coffin as people desert the Church like rats leaving a sinking ship. Christianity is in the darkest period of its history, and its leaders are facing a dilemma of epic proportions. Ironically, more than 100 years ago, Oscar Wilde (1894) naively gave the reason for the demise of Christianity when he opined; ‘All religions die of one disease; that of being found out’.
The death knell tolls for Christianity
Christianity is withering on the vine, and it is fair to say that the culmination of the paedophilia scandal and the exposure of forged narratives in the Gospels has accelerated the exodus of millions of people from the Church that has snowballed to proportions that Christian hierarchs today must be saying to themselves; ‘What the hell are we going to do?’ In summary, the undertakers are gathering in readiness to drive the nails into Christianity’s coffin as people desert the Church like rats leaving a sinking ship. Christianity is in the darkest period of its history, and its leaders are facing a dilemma of epic proportions. Ironically, more than 100 years ago, Oscar Wilde (1894) naively gave the reason for the demise of Christianity when he opined; ‘All religions die of one disease; that of being found out’.
http://www.vatileaks.com/vati-leaks/the-collapse-of-the-christian-religion
My comments: Faith in Chrsit Jesus and His Word will never die, as it is He, Himself, Who keeps it alive. A Christian is a person who has been Born Again, the old has past away and everything has become New. Such a person walks in the Light of the Teachings of Chrsit, and nothing can dissuade them--They know the Truth and the Truth has set them Free.
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