In a 1969 radio broadcast (later published as Faith and the Future), a young Joseph Ratzinger made a number of predictions from the culture he saw developing in that time.

He believed the Catholic Church was about to experience a major sifting. He believed after a long process of losing political influence, inclusion as an important part of social structures, and culling of members, the remaining little flock would be a Church that has lost much, but would be the “Church of the meek” that would become the answer to a world in which mankind would reach a point of profound emptiness.

Movements and members that focused on political activism and political stances would quickly fade and die. Members that are overly focused on a social aspects (even good ones like hospitals and schools) that aren’t focused primarily on it’s part of the mission of Jesus – will also likely fade into larger society. Believers will need to overcome a constant state of distraction (addictions to pleasure, recreation, and social/media distraction) to find their meaning fully in Jesus again. Priests can not be simple social workers – since that kind of work can be replaced by simple social work and psychotherapists. Only those that live primarily in Jesus, for Jesus, and profess Jesus will remain.

It’s definitely worth reading Ratzinger’s writings in this book and several others as he clearly understood the direction the world was headed even 60 years ago.

A lot of this has happened. Hospitals and schools are largely no longer run by religious organizations. The organizations that have strayed most from the message of Jesus Christ have died in tremendous numbers. Congregations have dramatically shrunk; and the Church’s political influence has been dramatically muted.

But perhaps we are seeing a turn as the Catholic Church has seen several years of record conversions and people being baptized.