Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, who is the Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, in the United States, has tweeted, and it is a mighty tweet, a gem amidst the dross and banality of Twitter. The Bishop has written: https://twitter.com/bishoptjt/status/995811117363597317 The poll to which Bishop Tobin refers is dealt with here. It does indeed show a decline in the proportion of Americans who describe themselves as Protestant by 14 per cent, and a rise in those who claim to have no religion to 21 per cent. Polls such as these are notoriously hard to interpret, but one thing does seem clear: the religious landscape of America is changing, and rapidly too; and the proportion of Catholics is steady. One other thing that comes to mind reading the Bishop’s tweet is this: who are those who say that we Catholics need to become more like the Protestants? This could be one of those notorious “straw men” of which we hear so much. Indeed, I am absolutely sure that numerous theologians who are usually thought of as liberal, for want of a better term, would all strenuously deny the charge of wanting to protestantise the Catholic Church. But step forward Tony Blair, who has openly called for the Church to “rethink” it attitude to, for example, homosexuality. Of course, Mr Blair is not a theologian, and no theologian would ever dream of saying something like this, as Tony did in 2009:
2:28 PM
Bishop Tobin is right: the Catholic Church must stay true to itself
American Protestantism has adapted to the modern age and lost followers in droves. Catholics should think twice before copying it
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

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