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Similarly, the story of Jesus and the rich young man appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

From this time on, many of His disciples broke away and would not remain in His company any longerвЂќ (John 6:60, 66). вЂњAfter hearing His words, many of the disciples remarked, вЂThis sort of talk is hard to endure! How can anyone take it seriously?вЂ™. In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus tells His disciples that they will have no life in them if they do not вЂњeat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His bloodвЂќ (John 6:53). Jesus Himself provides examples of the proper response to those who find it hard to accept difficult teachings.

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Even if this approach were shown to be effective, the problem is that the Church is not free to change doctrines that come from divine law as established by God or were instituted by Jesus Christ as found in Sacred Scripture. Some denominations have tried this approach with less than favorable results. It is illusory to think that relaxing the demands of the Gospel will have a magnetic effect. But this approach is inadequate for several reasons. Such an approach might seem easy enough for the Pope and Bishops simply to revise or revoke controversial teachings that people find hard to accept. A facile but inadequate answer to this finding would be that if the Church changed these doctrines, more people would join or return to the Catholic Church. Now that we have the results and analysis of the active and inactive surveys, it is essential that you hear from me as the Bishop of this diocese, since it is up to me, with the cooperation and collaboration of the clergy, consecrated religious and lay leaders of our diocese and parishes, to learn from these findings and then do something to make a positive difference for the future of this local church in central Illinois.ДЄt the outset, I note that respondents of both the active and inactive surveys mentioned that they disagreed or were at least troubled by some Church doctrines. If we are doing something right for some people, that should help us learn what we need to do to bring back those who have drifted away. Thus I thought it was essential to hear not only from those who have stopped attending Mass, but also to hear from those who do attend regularly to find out what draws them and keeps them coming to church. Carroll if Benedictine University would help to develop a strategy to dig deeper to find the underlying reasons and causes for the attrition in attendance at some parishes and growth in others. So a real desire to get to the motivation behind the numbers of the 2011 information led me to ask Dr. But the вЂњOctober CountвЂќ only tells us how many people are coming to church, not why they come or donвЂ™t come. The census is conducted annually by Catholic dioceses nationwide during the month of October to assess how many Catholics are active or inactive in their local parishes. So some parishes were growing while others were diminishing in numbers. At the same time, some parishes in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois experienced no change in attendance and others experienced an increase of as much as 82 percent. The survey was prompted by a very real pastoral concern that I noted in our dioceseвЂ™s 2011 вЂњOctober Count,вЂќ which reported a 30 percent decline in attendance at weekend Mass over a fifteen year period since 1996. The scholarly analysis of the survey is helpful and important, but this study is not a mere academic exercise addressing some theoretical issue.

Brian Patterson of the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Criminal Justice, for gathering, analyzing and summarizing the survey responses from several hundred participants.

Phillip Hardy of the Department of Political Science and Dr. William Carroll, President of Benedictine University, for authorizing this study, and to Dr. Symposium at Benedictine University at SpringfieldДownload a copy of Bishop Paprocki's ReflectionsДЄs Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, I am grateful for this opportunity to offer my reflections on the results from the online surveys of active and inactive Catholics in Central Illinois conducted by researchers from Benedictine University in Lisle and published under the title, вЂњJoy and Grievance in an American Diocese.вЂќ I am especially thankful to Dr. Results from the Benedictine University Online Surveys ofДЄctive and Inactive Catholics in Central Illinois Reflections on вЂњJoy and Grievance in an American DioceseвЂќ

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