However, it is still true that the number 220 represents less than one tenth of the estimated number of Catholics who live within the boundaries of the parish. We still have a long way to go. The truth is that the Catholic Church here as elsewhere in the country has been steadily losing ground over the past 25 years. Despite the much-trumpeted conversion of several thousand Anglican laity and some 300 clergy, little impact has been made on the steady drift away from the Church. Even the figure for practising Catholics includes those who go only once or twice a year which means that the real total is even less than the official one.
Illness can make one gloomy, for a time.
It can also provide space for serious and sober reflection and courage to speak up more clearly. There is also a need to be realistic about the true state of things that means being neither too confident in the face of the signs of decline that we see, or being unduly pessimistic about any hope of improvement. Since the 1960s, the Church in this country has been obsessed with creating new structures of discussion, catechesis, bureaucracy. These changes were supposed to bring about untold benefits to us all. An impartial observer would be persuaded to ask the question whether in fact they had.