Thread by @mahesh10816

CRUMBLING CHURCH

In India & in other developing countries the Church is projecting itself as a "Western" institution full of vigour & a civilizing force, the reality is that Christianity is crumbling everywhere in the west & this decline is especially noticeable in Europe

Many in India are unaware of the magnitude of the Churches decline- amounting to almost a collapse in Europe. Western students of Christianity are very well aware of the seriousness of this crisis. Here is what Belgian scholar Koenaard Elst has to say about the current state

"Anyone who cares to look,can see that Christianity is in steep decline.This is especially case in Europe,where Church attendance levels in many countries have fallen below 10% or even 5% ,even more omnious for the survival of Christianity is the decline in the priestly vocations

Many parishes that used to have 2 or 3 parish priests now have none, so that the Sunday service now has to be conducted by a visiting priest, who has an ever fuller agenda as his colleagues keep dying, retiring or abandoning the priesthood without being replaced ".

Many former Churches in Europe have now been taken over by non- Christian religious & cultural organisations. The famous Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan in West Kensington London is a former Church.

David Yallop England's foremost investigative reporter , responsible for exposing the murder of Pope John Paul I , in his book " in God's name" had this to say regarding the state of Christianity in Rome, the home of Christianity in most people's mind.

"The new concordat (agreement) between Vatican & Italian Govt during Pope John Paul II tenure is a fitting epitaph of the reign in Italy.For nearly 2000 years regarded by the catholics as the home of their faith,Romania Catholism is no longer the "Religion of the state" in Italy"

The Churches privileged position in Italy has ended. " Rome which has a sizable population of Catholics was estimated to produce 70 parishes a year, actually only 6 are churning out. Many parts of the city are pagan , church attendance less than 3% of the population "

Christianity, like Islam but unlike Hinduism is a communal religion, not a religion of self exploration, lack of participation in communal activities can spell it's death. This is precisely what is happening to Christianity in Europe.

Over the past few decades over 8000 priests had asked to be dispensed from their vows & nearly 3000 others have left without intimation. Its predicted over the next 5 years conservative figures say over 20000 more would leave.

Traditional catchment areas of Vatican are drying up. Holland for example used to produce over 300 priests a year, now ordinations are as rare as mountains in Holland. The average age of the priests is startlingly high @ 54 . Future looks too bleak for the church .

The number of samaritans in the US has fallen from 50000 to 12000. To keep the church alive church has resorted to massive infusions from India & Philippines.Even US army has been reduced to employ these non Americans as chaplains & these men & women have been lured less by faith

The situation for Church has gone from bad to worse in US. When Pope John Paul II visited US in Oct 1995, news papers reported the number of samaritans in the country was only 3500, today it must be much less than 3000. To survive Church has to expand & it's not expanding in west

The situation is so bad for the church that it's asking priests from Tamil Nadu to lecture Scotts on Bible. Younger priests are deserting the church in droves. All this is stark testimony to the bankruptcy of the institution. The simple message is " Church is imploding "

The Church is under a seige mentality bordering on paranoia, whenever it's faced with a threat of a rational alternative to church dogma, it panics, It is this fear that makes the church openly express hostility to eastern spiritual & empirical disciplines like Yoga.

It's only against this background Pope John Paul during during the Asian Bishops conference in Manila said " A new harvest of faith will be reaped on this vast & vital continent" , he presumably did not tell them that without this harvest Church is all but doomed.

This is what Asians - Indians in particular should be watchful about. In its sheer desperation the Church has launched a no holds barred campaign to expand as much as possible in India , even in India Christianity is declining in urban areas,

so it has moved aggressively into rural & tribal areas, this has now become the new battleground. The church will do anything to expand its Base even topple Governments, 2019 is happening under this background.

Another crushing blow for the church is the steep decline in revenue due to reduction in receipts from Kirchensteuer or " Church Tax" . agrevated by German unification and severe Economic crisis in many parts of Europe.

Many in India aren't aware of the fact that many European countries levy " Church tax" , especially in Germany, it's roughly about 2% of one's income. The worker has a choice to choose his church denomination to which he or she wishes to contribute. The worker can also opt out

claiming to be non Christians. In Islam non- believers were taxed ( jezia), but in Europe it's the believers who are taxed for their faith. Due to economic hardships more & more people are opting out of paying church tax by claiming to be non- Christians. This is hurting Church

Germany with a large & wealthy population - about half of which is Catholic - has always been a major source if funds for the church, it was the carrot Hitler dangled before the Vatican to get it take a pro Nazi position in the II world war.

In 1944 alone Nazi Contribution to Vatican amounted to over $100 Million. worth nearly $4 billion in today's value. This source is drying up. This is forcing the Indian Bishops to clamour for Dalit Christians. They want Indian tax payers to compensate for their loss in Europe.

The Vatican also managed to get a large share of the Nazi Gold looted from the Jews of Europe during the second World war. While the Swiss banks are opening up their records, the Vatican has maintained secrecy over its collaboration with the Nazis in plundering Jews of Europe

The loss of revenue following Europe's rejection of Christianity has led the church to resort to extreme measures. Including collaboration with Narcotics traffickers & drug money laundering. The Vatican bank for years has been acting as conduit for drug money.

It's Chief Archbishop Marcinkus , was wanted by police in several countries, he avoided arrest only by staying within the walls of Vatican which enjoys immunity as a soverign state. Investigations in Britain,Germany, Switzerland & Italy have shown that Vatican is deeply involved

In international drug trade ,the following incident will expose the deep links between the Vatican & drug traffickers.

In May 1993, Cardinal Posadas-Ocampo , the highest ranking Church official in Mexico was assassinated in the Guadalajara airport. Later investigations

Showed that the Cardinal had been acting as an agent of the notorious Colombian drug Lord Pablo Escobar. The Mexican Govt allowed the assassins to escape suggesting that they maury have had a hand in the crime. Later it also was known that the Cardinal was trying to get a safe ..

Asylum for Escobar in Mexico. Escobar himself was gunned down by Colombian authorities assisted by US drug enforcement agents. There have been many such scandals , but this is enough to show how far removed the church is from any spiritual concerns.

The priests & believers are leaving Christianity in droves, can money be far behind ? And Christianity like Islam cannot live by faith alone ,it needs power & money, now it's loosing both.

Indians should know what is happening & make sure that they don't swallow one more thing that the west has excreated . 🙏🙏🙏 thank you for reading this long thread.

This is just the first salvo, more on the cards.