Experts Discuss the Decline of Christendom and the Church's Response

The decline of Christendom, as a sociocultural and political entity, is not a new revelation. The reality is that it has been practically buried for over two hundred years, although in the mindset of many Christians, it continues to be relevant. Many, though not all, continue to think in terms and categories that no longer exist. This is not a simplistic argument about the Church not adapting to the times or changing things that 'offend' within the Church. Instead, it refers to a dangerous mix that settles, almost unconsciously, in the minds of many Catholics. This mix combines a feeling of 'persecuted Christian' with a certain nostalgia for a past that may or may not have been better, and a detachment from personal responsibility.

The Pope León XIV, at the beginning of his catechesis on the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, reminded that 'Saint John XXIII, in his inaugural speech on October 11, 1962, wanted to express his disagreement with the 'prophets of calamities,' who 'even in their ardent zeal [...] say that our time, compared to the past, has worsened; and they behave as if they had learned nothing from history.' Experts from the University of Mary, in their work From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, point to a similar issue in the face of the new reality of a post-Christian society. They state, 'One of the reasons for this rapid collapse has been that the change that the global vision of society had been experiencing for some time went unnoticed, and the Church's institutions did not adapt to it.

Instead, they continued to be led with an attitude of 'nothing is happening here.' Eventually, a Christian vision so eroded was unable to bear the weight of the culture: the house fell, and its ruin was great.' The Church is called to serve humanity, listening to and welcoming the deepest questions of the heart and the longings that inhabit it, pointing to Christ as 'the key, the center, and the end of all human history.' It is not about changing the names of old structures, watering down doctrine, or infantilizing morality. Rather, it is about changing mental structures and making them truly Catholic to respond to the world with the radicality of Faith and the Gospel.