Decline of religion

[Fake Messiah]

The Catholic Church Has a Manpower Problem: Fewer Priests Every Year

A sharp, decadelong decline in the number of young men who want to become priests has only accelerated since the pandemic. The lure of other career options and a growing wariness about a lifelong—and celibate—commitment is leading Catholics to turn away from a once honored path, even in the faithful global South.

Since 1970, the global Catholic population has doubled, but the number of priests has dipped. As aging clergy die, the ranks of those waiting to take their place has dwindled, leaving some parishes with no leader. Seminaries are closing or merging across the Church’s European heartland, which for centuries trained most of the world’s priests and sent them to evangelize the furthest corners of the globe.

In the past five years, the number of young men entering seminary to become priests has also consistently declined in Latin America and Asia, leaving Africa as the only region still growing. Globally, the number of seminarians tumbled by some 14,000 between 2011 and 2023 to 106,495.

St. Patrick’s seminary near Dublin, Ireland, once the world’s largest with room for 500 seminarians, is down to an average of 15 new seminarians a year. The 130-year-old St. John’s seminary in southern England, built to accommodate 100 seminarians, closed in 2021 after getting no new applicants.

The decline has also hit the Church’s traditional home in Italy, the wellspring of most popes and countless cardinals.

Growing secularization, Church abuse scandals, the hardships of celibacy and more economic opportunities have all contributed to the shift away from religious work.

Italy’s falling birthrate means families are less likely to encourage their sons to become priests than in the past, especially if they are only children. Priests have also lost their exalted place in society; surveys show the number of Italians who consider themselves Catholic has declined to two-thirds, down from nearly everyone 50 years ago.

“If you go on the metro wearing a priestly collar, people may swear blasphemously at you as you pass,” said Andrea Swich, an earnest 29-year-old who recently started his sixth and final year at Venegono. He gave up a career as a physiotherapist and a girlfriend to pursue the path to priesthood. His two sisters didn’t take it well.

Swich sees an upside to the diminishing appeal of a priestly life: “No one these days becomes a priest for the salary or because of social status.”

Out of the 20 seminarians who enrolled with him, eight have quit.

At St. Patrick’s church in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Rev. Eugene O’Neill is now the lone priest—the first time the parish has had just one priest in the past two centuries. The diocese is also dwindling. When O’Neill became a priest in the early 1990s, there were more than 200 priests in the Down and Connor diocese. Now, there are 27.

O’Neill says the lack of new vocations in Europe and other Western countries means the future of the priesthood looks more like its diverse global flock. When he took a vacation over the summer, his temporary replacement flew in from Uganda.

“Ireland used to send priests to the world. Now, they will have to come here,” he said.

There are now more seminaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo than Poland, more in India than Italy, according to Vatican figures. At the recent papal conclave European cardinals were in the minority for the first time, said the Rev. Thomas Gaunt, a Church demographics expert at the University of Georgetown.

But as living standards rise in other parts of the world, the number of seminarians is starting to fall there, too. Vocations declined 1.3% in the Americas in 2023, and plunged 4.2% in Asia. Africa, the only region with a growing number of seminarians, rose just 1.1%.

In the Philippines, a bastion of Asian Catholicism, there is growing concern about young men turning away from the priesthood, says the Rev. Randy De Jesus, executive secretary of the commission on vocations at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. Social media is shifting priorities, he said. “There’s competition.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-cultur...r-AA1N5LZa

[Fake Messiah]

15,000 churches could close this year amid religious shift in U.S.

The U.S. could see an unprecedented 15,000 churches shut their doors this year, far more than the few thousand expected to open, according to denominational reports and church consultants.

Why it matters: The unprecedented contraction, expected to continue over the next decade, risks leaving gaps in communities nationwide — particularly rural ones, where churches often are crucial providers of food aid, child care and disaster relief.

The decline of traditional brick-and-mortar churches comes as a record number of Americans (29%) are identifying as religiously unaffiliated, and as 62% identify as Christians — down from 78% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center.

At the same time, mostly non-denominational megachurches — and evangelical Christianity in general — are an increasing influence on American life, driven by charismatic leaders, sympathetic politicians and social media.

The record number of church closings forecast this year stems from struggles many churches face — including retaining full-time pastors, said Thom Rainer, a former president of LifeWay Christian Resources, an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention that provides resources for churches.

In a widely shared Baptist Courier piece, Rainer — a consultant on church health — said that waves of church closings are coming, and that another 15,000 U.S. churches will move from full- to part-time time pastors.

The National Council of Churches estimates that 100,000 U.S. churches across denominations will close during the next several years, confirming Rainer's analysis.

Mainline Protestant denominations such as Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran represent nearly all the church closings, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist.

The number of Catholic churches also appears to be declining, partly because of the continuing following from priest abuse lawsuits, said Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Baltimore's Catholic Archdiocese, the nation's oldest, is slashing its churches by about two-thirds, citing shrinking attendance and aging buildings, according to the AP.

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/03/us-chur...christians

[Fake Messiah]

U.S. churchgoers’ pro-life conviction plummets by 20 points in two years, new study reveals

A highlighted finding shows that in just two years, the percentage of churchgoing adults who identify as “pro-life” has plummeted from 63% to 43%, according to a national study released Monday (Oct. 13) by the Family Research Council (FRC) in partnership with the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University (CRC).

The extensive survey, which polled more than 1,000 adults who attend Christian worship services at least monthly, paints a picture of a church struggling with its convictions in the face of overwhelming cultural pressure. The research suggests that on foundational moral issues, the gap between those in the pews and the secular public is narrowing at an accelerated pace.

“It’s deeply discouraging to see the share of churchgoers identifying as pro-life drop so dramatically,” said David Closson, Director of FRC’s Center for Biblical Worldview. “For decades, Christians have led the way in defending the dignity of unborn life, but these findings reveal just how much cultural confusion has seeped into the church.”

This growing ambivalence appears linked to a waning confidence in the clarity of Scripture on the matter. In 2023, two-thirds of churchgoers (65%) believed the Bible is clear and decisive in its teaching on abortion. By 2025, that number had fallen to just 51%. Strikingly, even among the 51% who believe the Bible is clear, only half (53%) identify as pro-life, while nearly a third (30%) still call themselves pro-choice.

The study also suggests a vacuum of teaching from the pulpit. Just over half of churchgoers (53%) reported that their church preaches or teaches on abortion at least once a year. A quarter of Protestants (26%) and 16% of Catholics said their church never addresses the topic.

Furthermore, the appetite for such teaching is shrinking; the share of churchgoers who said more biblical worldview education on abortion is “very desirable” fell from 41% in 2023 to just 28% today.

“When the people of God lose moral clarity on an issue as fundamental as the sanctity of life, it signals a serious discipleship crisis,” Closson stated. “Scripture could not be clearer that every human life is made in the image of God and therefore possesses immeasurable worth (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139).”

The survey found a similar decline in consensus regarding the definition of family. The study revealed no majority view among churchgoers, with the largest share (46%) defining family according to God’s design — a man and a woman married to each other, along with their children and relatives.

However, a significant portion embraced alternative definitions. Roughly one in five (22%) said the definition of family changes over time and across cultures, and nearly as many (20%) believe family is simply any group of people who care for one another.

George Barna, who serves as a Senior Research Fellow for FRC, agreed that external forces are having a powerful impact. “The media bombardment favoring a new moral standard is clearly having a transformative effect on Americans,” he stated.

https://www.christiandaily.com/news/us-c...dy-reveals

[Angrboda]

Abortion was pushed by political forces to serve as a wedge issue to rally support for their politics. Now that they've ostensibly chased and caught the car, it ceases to be a useful rallying cry, so the political support evaporates.

[Fake Messiah]

‘Exvangelical’ women are leaving their churches

Taylor Yoder, who grew up in an evangelical Christian family in southern Pennsylvania, was active in her church and its youth group. But as a young adult, she found that friendships with LGBTQ co-workers at a Starbucks caused her to reexamine what she’d been told about homosexuality. “Do I really believe that these people deserve to burn in hell just because they don’t believe like me?” she asked herself.

When her family embraced Donald Trump, she continued to unpack, or “deconstruct,” her faith. “What upsets me most is how politics has become so intertwined with the church,” said Yoder. “It turned a lot of evangelicals in my life really ugly.”

Today, at 31, she is an atheist, and one of many formerly evangelical young women who are disengaging from religion, and at higher rates than their male counterparts. Under the handle “skeptical_heretic,” she critiques evangelicalism and its political ties in videos on TikTok, gaining some 240,000 followers — enough to earn a living.

But the cost has been steep: She’s barely in touch with her family, who warn she’s bound for hell.

In this, too, Yoder is part of a trend: “Exvangelical” women have generated a flurry of memoirs, podcasts, social media posts and YouTube channels depicting evangelical culture as oppressive, unhealthy and even harmful. Their critiques converge on four themes: politics, patriarchy, abuse and the treatment of LGBTQ people. They tell of churches rallying behind Trump, keeping women out of leadership and instead promoting a culture of “purity,” while failing to address abuse scandals exposed in the #ChurchToo movement that followed #MeToo.

Some, like Yoder, have abandoned their faith entirely. Others still follow Jesus but seek to reclaim what they believe is a purer, more inclusive version of the faith. The latter are moving to more progressive churches, though many who have trouble finding a church often meet in private homes.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 40% of women ages 18-29 are religiously unaffiliated — a percentage that for the first time outpaces the unaffiliated rate for young men, which has remained at about 35%.

Their reasons vary: 80% say they no longer believe their religion’s teachings, 58% cite anti-LGBTQ views, while half say their faith harmed their mental health.

In modern American culture, where young women are urged to shoot for the top in business, politics and sports, the bans on female leadership in conservative churches seem out of step. “Those sorts of messages are not going to comport with young women today,” says Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI.

Beth Allison Barr, a Baylor University historian who chronicles women’s roles in the early and medieval church, said she has talked with many frustrated Christian women across the country. “Women don’t see a place for themselves in the church,” Barr said. “They don’t hear women-elevated stories. They do not feel like their callings are appreciated.”

Christa Brown, raised Southern Baptist in Texas in the 1960s, said she loved her church until a youth pastor began abusing her when she was a teen. Speaking out decades later, she discovered how resistant her denomination was to holding pastors accountable. Her 2024 memoir, “Baptistland,” describes evangelicalism as a “culture of domination” rooted in male authority and a lack of accountability.

https://brookingsregister.com/stories/ex...hes,162273

[Fake Messiah]

Why Are So Many Young Priests Leaving Ministry?

Despite growing up Catholic, loving his faith, and enjoying constant encouragement throughout his seminary experience, Toby had nevertheless been harboring serious doubts about whether he could truly say “Yes” to priesthood. But he says expectations from family, supporters and the seminary itself created a situation where he felt it impossible to step back from ordination.

Though he immediately felt deeply insecure in the priesthood, Toby, on the advice of an older priest, decided to take his best swing at parish ministry.

“By Christmas, I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown,” Toby recalled.

Toby requested laicization just a few years after his ordination day. He told the Register he had always harbored a strong attraction to marriage; he’s happily married today.

The phenomenon of men leaving the priesthood in short order — for reasons that have nothing to do with misconduct or scandal — are more common than you might think.

Experts who work with U.S. priests told the Register they have increasingly seen, in recent years, the issues of burnout and loneliness drive men away from their vocation. And the data support this observation: According to a recent study by The Catholic Project, younger priests are reporting higher levels of burnout and loneliness compared with their more senior peers.

Father Peter — also not his real name — a young parochial vicar ordained roughly a decade ago who serves on the East Coast, told the Register that he knows “a notable number of guys” his age and younger who have left the priesthood, in his diocese and elsewhere.

He recalled one peer who left the priesthood after just six years, citing the “un-Christlike” behavior of fellow priests. Other peers — once they came to understand how “messy and broken” people who work in the Church can be behind the scenes — conclude the priesthood is not for them, he said.

“I’ve known guys who don’t want to leave the priesthood, but they feel they have no choice and no support from other priests, from their bishop,” Father Peter said.

“Basically, they get to a place of: ‘If this is what priesthood is, then I don’t want any part of it,’” he said.

Despite his relatively short time in active ministry, Toby — who ministered in the U.K. — said he was able to observe firsthand how the often-lonely priestly lifestyle can be damaging and push men to leave.

“Basically, we’re forming a community [in seminary], and then [after ordination] effectively asked to live pretty much a life of isolation, of solitude. … I saw that as a factor for other men who basically discerned their way out of seminary before being ordained. I know that was a big factor for a good friend of mine.”

The stresses, isolation and “bachelor lifestyle” that some priests fall into can lead to depression, hopelessness, substance abuse and even, tragically, suicides.

https://www.ncregister.com/news/why-are-...-isolation

[Fake Messiah]

‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans

The region’s 500-year transformation into a Catholic stronghold seemed capped in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as the first Latin American pope. Once a missionary outpost, Latin America is now the heart of the Catholic Church. It is home to over 575 million adherents – over 40% of all Catholics worldwide. The next-largest regions are Europe and Africa, each home to 20% of the world’s Catholics.

Yet beneath this Catholic dominance, the region’s religious landscape is changing.

First, Protestant and Pentecostal groups have experienced dramatic growth. In 1970, only 4% of Latin Americans identified as Protestant; by 2014, the share had climbed to almost 20%.

But even as Protestant ranks swelled, another trend was quietly gaining ground: a growing share of Latin Americans abandoning institutional faith altogether.

Overall, the number of Latin Americans reporting no religious affiliation surged from 7% in 2004 to over 18% in 2023. The share of people who say they are religiously unaffiliated grew in 15 of the 17 countries, and more than doubled in seven.

On average, 21% of people in South America say they do not have a religious affiliation, compared with 13% in Mexico and Central America. Uruguay, Chile and Argentina are the three least religious countries in the region. Guatemala, Peru and Paraguay are the most traditionally religious, with fewer than 9% who identify as unaffiliated.

Another question scholars typically use to measure religious decline is how often people go to church. From 2008 to 2023, the share of Latin Americans attending church at least once a month decreased from 67% to 60%. The percentage who never attend, meanwhile, grew from 18% to 25%.

The generational pattern is stark. Among people born in the 1940s, just over half say they attend church regularly. Each subsequent generation shows a steeper decline, dropping to just 35% for those born in the 1990s. Religious affiliation shows a similar trajectory – each generation is less affiliated than the one before.

What we are seeing in Latin America, I’d argue, is a fragmented pattern of religious decline. The authority of religious institutions is waning – fewer people claim a faith; fewer attend services. But personal belief isn’t eroding. Religious importance is holding steady, even growing.

This pattern is quite different from Europe and the United States, where institutional decline and personal belief tend to move together.

Eighty-six percent of unaffiliated people in Latin America say they believe in God or a higher power. That compares with only 30% in Europe and 69% in the United States.

Sizable proportions of unaffiliated Latin Americans also believe in angels, miracles and even that Jesus will return to Earth in their lifetime.

In other words, for many Latin Americans, leaving behind a religious label or skipping church does not mean leaving faith behind.

https://www.alternet.org/religion-in-latin-america/