In this materialistic and consumerist day and age, our Catholic Church too is suffering. It is suffering from a lack of depth in spirituality, and an attachment to worldly mores, values and practices. Hence its message often sounds vacuous and empty to church-goers and observers. Some church sermons ramble on meaninglessly, with no depth and pious simplicity.
I have it from a mature young Franciscan student studying in a Roman college that modern young people are not in the least attracted to a worldly spiritual life. They can have that in their secular world anyway.
No wonder that priestly and nuns’ vocations have been dwindling since the 1960s. There islittle nowadays to distinguish lay peoples’ values and dress, from those of spiritually committed people. The result is a drying up of religious vocations, a situation that is now very hard to turn around. Priests and nuns should ideally stand out in a crowd, not be anonymous participantsin society.
Christ said that His disciples were in this world, but not of this world. The liberal directives of Vatican Council II have, with some important exceptions, done great damage to the Catholic Church.