The Watchtower's Catholic Future

by metatron 5 Replies latest jw friends

  • metatron
    metatron

    I recently read that the Catholic Church is experiencing an accelerated loss of priests and nuns. Apparently, the new hardline

    ( and ex-Nazi) Pope isn't doing that great. Nevertheless, Catholics continue to grow in numbers, worldwide.

    I think you can observe the same trends in the organization: more publishers but fewer elders, at least in Western nations. Basically,

    more and more doing less and less. Many people want to be known as Catholics - or Witnesses - but put less effort into being such.

    In addition, some dioceses may be seeing a drop in contributions realted to the church's child molestation problems, not unlike what

    much of the organization is experiencing. Even C.O.'s now recommend a passive retreat from householders who ask too many informed

    questions. The organization has shifted into a defensive mode - unlike its "in your face" past.

    It makes you wonder about the individual faith of Governing Body members as they cut Bethelites, magazines, literature, subscriptions,

    food service at assemblies, and much else while selling off long held buildings in Brooklyn. I wonder how much longer they can continue to

    waste dollars printing trash like the Awake magazine.

    How can they avoid the thought that they are playing an endgame? And not one that terminates in Armageddon?

    metatron

  • Dogaradodya
    Dogaradodya
    How can they avoid the thought that they are playing an endgame? And not one that terminates in Armageddon?

    Definitely all religions will terminate in Armageddon where we will come to know who really is God. He is us. The way to that recognition is Armageddon.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ5UVxnS114&feature=related

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    Good post, Metatron. If you've watched the behavior of the WTS from an objectively intimate distance over the course of many years, you can see how they really have slid into a defensive posture, minimizing their ambition. Everything is an emphasis on retaining their ranks, avoiding a rout. Of course, members see this as a "sign," thinking the end is so near that they need to go into their "inner chambers" and wait out the GT and Armageddon. if they ever reach the "inner chamber" point, the cultish behavior will force many to admit the extreme nature of the religion and will be turned off. Then, some other iteration of Jehovah's Witnesses will surely propigate.

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    I recently read that the Catholic Church is experiencing an accelerated loss of priests and nuns.

    Overall. No. In my part of the USA, no. In some dioceses affected by the pedophilia, yes.

    Apparently, the new hardline ( and ex-Nazi) Pope isn't doing that great.

    Neither Ratzinger nor any member of his immediate family joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party). Ratzinger’s father was critical of the Nazi government, and as a result the family had to move four times before he was ten years old.... Joseph Ratzinger has explained that his membership in the Hitler Youth was mandatory — it wasn’t his personal choice to join and he certainly didn’t join out of any personal conviction that the Nazis were right. Despite being a member, he refused to attend any meetings. Attendance would have reduced the cost of his schooling at the seminary, yet this did not deter him....There is absolutely no reason to think that Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is now or has ever been secretly a Nazi. Nothing he has ever said or done even remotely suggests the slightest sympathy with any of the basic Nazi ideas or goals. Any claim that he is a Nazi is implausible at best.

    http://atheism.about.com/od/benedictxvi/i/RatzingerNazi.htm

    Ratzinger might have been able to do more as a boy against the Nazi regime, but he was no Nazi.

    Burn

  • metatron
    metatron

    Technically, he didn't join the Nazi party but I suggest that anyone read the whole article and judge if his explanations are weak or self

    serving.

    As for priests, the gap is clear:

    www.beliefnet.com/story164/story_16491_1.html

    According to a report on Drudge, the downward trend in priests has suddenly increased, over what existed under the past pope.

    It may be that their image has been damaged quite deeply.

    metatron

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips

    According to a report on Drudge, the downward trend in priests has suddenly increased, over what existed under the past pope.

    It may be that their image has been damaged quite deeply.

    'Tis true.

    Burn

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