If Christianity was a football club (say the Australian Christian Football Club – ACFC), and membership was the most critical indicator of the club’s viability, how would the ACFC fare?
Who is responsible for ensuring that the club continues to attract members?
Religious Affiliation in Australia, 1971 – 2021
Waves of migration have shaped Australia’s religious profile. Over the years, the growth of Christianity in Australia was a function of migration. One can conclude that domestic evangelisation in Australia was never a strong suit. The ability of the ACFC to retain existing members, and attract new ones domestically, has never been strong.
Christian affiliation by generation, 2021
As the number of Christians declined in the newer waves of migration, the inability to retain existing Christians, and attract new ones in Australia, has resulted in millennials having the highest proportion of No religion (46.5%) and Other religions (14.9 %).
Decline in Christian affiliation
The number of people affiliated with Christianity in Australia decreased from 12.2 million (52.1%) in 2016 to 11.1 million (43.9%) in 2021. This decrease occurred across most ages, with the most significant reduction for young adults (18 -25 years).
SEE
We ask ourselves, as Catholics in Australia, how is it that:
A club with over 3,000 organisations employing more than 220 000 people (in 2016) throughout Australia?
A club with over 1,759 Catholic schools reaching 793,897 young people throughout Australia?
A club with over 11,400 branches (local parishes) throughout Australia?
A club with an estimated national wealth of $30 billion (in 2018)?
is struggling to retain existing members, let alone find new ones?
JUDGE
Why is this club struggling?
Is it the brand?
Is it the strategy?
Is it the leaders?
Is it the existing members themselves?
Is it something else?
ACT
What can we, the members, do to stop and reverse this decline?
Yesterday, we read Stefan’s reflection celebrating the birth anniversary of the International Young Christian Workers’ (IYCW) first’s president, Patrick Keegan.
Patrick Keagan, in a speech to Australia, concluded that,
“A Christian Australia is a worthwhile target for all members of the YCW. A Christian Australia is vital for the whole Pacific world. Australia is vital for the whole Pacific world. One knows that millions of people in the Far East are hungrily looking for an ideal of life pressed down as they are by an economic and social misery unknown in such intensity in Europe. In this setting, Australia must take her responsibility as the torch bearer of Christian values – geographically set as she is the springboard for the Far East.”
Patrick Keegan, Australian Broadcast 26.6.51 (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library/Pat Keegan)
In 1951, when Keegan made this speech, Australia was a very different country. He would be surprised at what has happened since. According to the 1954 census, the total number of Christians was almost 90% of the total population.
Catholics were 23%, Anglicans were 38%, and other Christians were 29%. The Australian Young Christian Workers (ACYW) and the Australian Young Christian Students (AYCS) were vibrant youth movements spread throughout Australia.
Today, Christians are 44% of the Australian population (a minority for the first time since the invasion, but still a majority within the plurality of those who do not associate with any faith and other faiths).
Catholics are 20% of the Australian population, and the AYCW and the AYCS are a shadow of their former selves, limited to a few locations.
Far from being vital for the Pacific world, Australian Christians (Catholics) cannot keep Australia Christian (Catholic).
The declining number of Christians (Catholics) in Australia is concerning, and the causes are complex. What can we do about it?
SEE
Do I understand the causes of the declining number of Catholics in Australia?
Which of these causes is within my spheres of influence?
Would Cardijn and Vatican II’s teachings, particularly on the role of the lay apostolate, be a way to re-evangelise Australia again?
JUDGE
If Australian Catholic laity would fulfil their baptismal role as priest, prophet and king – as captured in Stefan’s reflection: Lay People as Priest, Prophet and King – could that contribute to re-evangelising Australia, once again, and in an authentic way?
ACT
What can we do, as Australian Catholics, in the public sphere to fulfil our baptismal roles as priest, prophet and king?
In today’s first reading (Genesis 1: 20 – 2:4), we find the passage:
…God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.’
…God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.
Cardinal Cardijn made this clear to young workers.
“Young workers must always be faced with the great truth of the eternal destiny of the mass of young workers. How often have I cried out at mass meetings: You are not machines, beasts of burden, slaves; you are human beings, with an eternal destiny, a divine origin, a divine purpose. You are sons of God, partners with God, you are heirs of God; this is true, not only for a select few but for the masses and the whole of the working class, without exception.”
The world today is better than it was in the past. Despite the systemic environmental degradation, the quality of life of billions is improving. Yet, billions are also suffering.
The abundance of God’s creation is insufficient for the wants of many. This imbalance between the desires of a significant population against the needs of others desecrates and violates the truth that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God.
Pat’s reflection on 4 February 2023 captures this imbalance in rich and abundant Australia.
JUDGE
Do I/we believe in today’s first reading — that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore we are all equal no matter what our station in life is?
Do I/we believe in Cardijn’s exhortation that we are not machines, beasts of burden, slaves … to employers, to consumerism, to materialism, to an ideology…
Do I/we believe that i/we are children of God, partners with God, and heirs of God?
ACT
If I/we believe in today’s first reading and in Cardijn’s exhortation:
What could I/we do not to become a slave to an employer, to an ideology, to consumerism, or to materialism?
What could I/we do to help those suffering from injustices that deprive them of their humanity?
Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of Saints Timothy and Titus. Timothy and Titus were converted to Christianity by St. Paul and became his friend and helpers. Timothy took care of Christians in Ephesus and Titus of Christians in Crete.
In general, we could say that they are formed through their family life, school life, Church life, and life in the broader community.
SEE
How strong is the influence of Catholics and Catholic institutions on young Australian Catholics?
Twenty per cent of Australians are Catholics. In other words, one in five Australians is Catholic.
1,755 Catholic schools are educating more than 785,000 students in Australia. In other words, one in five Australian students go to a Catholic school.
There are 1388 Catholic Churches in Australia, including 93 Eastern Catholic Churches.
JUDGE
In the first reading today, Paul reminds Timothy to “fan into a flame, the gift that God gave you….”
Returning, to Cardijn’s keynote address to the World Congress for the Lay Apostolate, in 1951, he demanded that,
“Each Christian, each Catholic, by his or her baptism, must be an apostle and a missionary – he has an apostolic and missionary vocation. Each one is called by God to Existence, to life, and to a collaboration in His creative and redemptive work. The earthly vocation is an apostolic and missionary vocation.”
ACT
As Catholic parents, are we forming our children to be apostles and missionaries as a way of living their lives?
As Catholic educators, are we forming our students to be apostles and missionaries as a way of living their lives?
As Catholic adults, do we fulfil our apostolic and missionary duties in our daily lives?
What could we, as lay apostles, do today to form our young to be apostles and missionaries as a way of living their lives?
Jayne (not her real name) was in Year 12 and eager to do well in her final year of her studies. She was most concerned about her Maths class and feared her results at the end of the year would not reflect her ability in this subject. She was also worried for the others in her class. The problem: their teacher was often absent from the class. The problem: their teacher was also the principal of the school and her administrative duties often drew her away from her teaching. Jayne knew the negative impact on the class of their teacher’s frequent absences. Their requests for help with their Maths seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Jayne reviewed the situation with her YCS group. If Cardijn had been present in the group, he would have reflected on the problem as one of humanisation, that is, a situation which calls for “permitting and assuring the dignity, the respect, the development of each person, of each family, and of the immense majority of human beings.” In his keynote address to the World Congress for the Lay Apostolate in Rome, 1951, Cardijn also said that we need to remember that we are not meant to live to work, but to work so that we can live.
When Jesus restored a blind man’s sight on the Sabbath, the Pharisees carried out an investigation of his action. They were intent on finding evidence that would rid them of his influence on the people. Jesus used the opportunity to speak of himself as the “good shepherd” and that his work is to look after his sheep. He said, “I have come in order that you may have life – life in all its fullness” (John 10:10).
I would like to propose that Fr Joseph Cardijn had Jesus’ revelation in mind when he reflected on the relationship between the worker and work. Moreover, the purpose of work is the good of the other. In the Gospel reading for Mass for Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time, Mark tells about the time that Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6). His focus is on the life of that man and not on the Sabbath. And isn’t this what Jayne is looking for from her teacher: that she take care of her students who express their need for her help?
As we look from the sideline, the change in Jayne’s situation that is needed is obvious: that the students have a Maths teacher who teaches them and helps them to learn and experience success. If you were Jayne, what action would you take to achieve this goal? And what did Jayne do? The school she attended was conducted by a religious order and the principal was a member of that order. Jayne wrote to the leadership team of the order and was invited to a meeting about the situation in the school. She attended the meeting and described the impact of not having regular Maths lessons on herself and her peers. At another meeting, the leadership team discussed the situation with the principal and concluded that the school should appoint a Maths teacher and the principal focus on the task of leading the school. Indeed, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and his disciples follow his example.
