Latin American Church needs new effort to stop attrition to Evangelicals, Pope says
CWN – June 22, 2012
Many sincere people in Latin America are leaving the Catholic Church for Protestant groups, not because of doctrinal differences but because they do not find enough support for their spiritual lives, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of visiting bishops from Colombia on June 22.
The Holy Father told the Colombian prelates—who were making their ad limina visits—that “a renewed and fruitful movement of evangelization” is needed to bring new life to the Catholic Church in their country. He remarked that “Colombia is not immune to the consequences of neglecting God.”
In the context of a “crisis in spiritual and moral values which has had a negative effect on many of your fellow citizens,” the Pope called on the Colombian bishops to proclaim the Gospel and to provide help for those in spiritual or material need. He said that “often sincere people who leave our Church do not do so as a result of what non-Catholic groups believe, but fundamentally as a result of their own lived experience; for reasons not of doctrine but of life.”
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14713
As I recall, Cardinal Ratzinger was none to pleased with the “Silent Apostasy” statement; more so, even, than Pope John Paul II was.
Looks like Latin America could use a Latin Mass.