A Proposal for Saving the Church in America

Recently, Eric Sammons shared the grim results of a Pew Survey on religion in America. The survey found that only 19 percent of Americans self-identify as Catholic, a 20 percent decrease from the 24 percent who did so in 2007. For every 100 people who enter the Catholic Church, 840 depart it. To make matters worse, only 29 percent of those self-identifying Catholics actually attend Mass weekly. Meanwhile, the number of religious “nones” in the United States has ballooned by 81 percent—many of them former Catholics. 

Sammons goes on to ask why we are seeing this depressing decline in the United States and how we can combat it. He observes that “Catholics need to consider a complete overhaul in how the Church currently operates. Absolutely nothing should be off the table, except those things that are of divine origin.” While noting that there’s no single silver bullet that will resolve the problem, Sammons does offer some sound proposals for ways to reverse the collapse, including making the Traditional Latin Mass more widely available, halting interreligious activities, and returning to the use of the Baltimore Catechism. 

I’d like to offer an additional suggestion—perhaps the closest thing to a silver bullet that we have: total, radical dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary and an energetic program to spread that devotion—in our homes, parishes, dioceses, and society at large. I fear that our current apathy and acedia might derive from a lack of true devotion to Mary.

I don’t believe we can overcome the lukewarmness in the American Church and re-evangelize our culture without her. In the Church, great changes are needed administratively, catechetically, and liturgically. But those large-scale changes begin with the conversion of individual hearts. And that begins with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Consider the case of St. Dominic. St. Dominic possessed all the natural talents and abilities of a great preacher. He carried a dogged determination to save souls. He was willing to sacrifice everything for his mission. On top of that, he was himself a saint. Yet, despite all this, he could not convert the Albigensian heretics until Our Lady appeared to him and gave him her weapon: the Rosary. Only by working in and through the Blessed Mother could this missionary giant change hearts and, through them, the world.

Or again, after Cortez shattered the nightmarish human-sacrificing empire of the Aztecs, the Catholic missionaries labored largely in vain to convert the natives. Only a slow trickle entered the Faith. According to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness by Catholic historian Warren Carroll, only about 200,000 Indians, around 1 percent of the population, had converted by 1532. Then, as swift and powerful as a flash of lightning from Heaven, the natives began to convert by the millions, in possibly the largest mass conversion in history. 

Carroll writes, “Wherever the missionaries were, wherever they went, Indians of all ages flocked to them for baptism in unprecedented, overwhelming numbers.” The tide had been unleashed. The cause? The Blessed Mother and her appearance in Mexico City to St. Juan Diego. Only once Our Lady stepped in did the missionary efforts take off. Only then were hearts changed. And that is how the world changes.

Perhaps it was examples like these that led St. Maximilian Kolbe to believe that Mary was the key to converting the modern world. He founded the Militia of the Immaculata in 1917 with the modest goal of defeating the Freemasons and transforming the face of the earth. 

This could be done, he believed, only through Our Lady. As he stated in a conference in 1933, 

As for the conversion of sinners, we can accomplish this in no other way than through Mary. In His infinite goodness, God appointed His Most Holy Mother as the treasurer of all graces, and they are poured out upon the world only through Her.

With limitless confidence in Mary, St. Maximilian really believed that devotion to her could sweep the world like a holy fire, and he fought for the day when every human heart would be consecrated to her. “With all our might, and trusting in our Queen, we advance even into the enemy camp, in order to hunt down souls and to win them for the Immaculata,” wrote St. Maximilian in an April 23, 1929, letter. 

Every heart that is beating somewhere in the world and every one that shall beat until the end of the world, must be captured for the Immaculata: that is our goal! And we want to accomplish this as quickly as possible.

According to this great Marian saint, if there is a silver bullet for solving the problems of the world, it is the miraculous medal. He called the miraculous medal a “bullet” to defeat evil and save souls. He similarly promoted total consecration to Mary and the recitation of the Rosary. If there is a silver bullet for solving the problems of the world, it is the miraculous medal.Tweet This

The American Church suffers from a dearth of grace. Our Lady is the Mediatrix of all graces, as St. Maximilian knew well. She holds in her hands the infinite treasures of the King, and she is ready to liberally pour them out, if we will only ask her and be her faithful children.

What might it look like, practically, to be faithful children of Mary and so to help the Church? Ultimately, that question has to be settled by each individual, responding to his or her circumstances and conscience. But it seems to me to be twofold: (1) to increase our own devotion to Mary and (2) to spread that devotion everywhere we can. A few suggestions would include:

• Make the total consecration to Mary according to St. Louis de Montfort or St. Maximilian Kolbe.
• Read about and pray to the Blessed Mother frequently. We wish to have a real, deep, childlike relationship with her, fostered through prayer.
• Practice the First Saturdays devotion. Mary already gave us the battle plan at Fatima, and this devotion is at its core. But why limit ourselves to only five Saturdays? We can practice the First Saturdays devotion indefinitely, to win more and more graces for ourselves and others and hasten the conversion of our society. We could even practice it daily in what Gabi Castillo calls the “communion of reparation lifestyle.”
• Wear and distribute the miraculous medal and the scapular to friends, family, coworkers, strangers—everyone. St. Maximilian says in the December 1927 issue of Knight, “Let us distribute the Miraculous Medal everywhere that we possibly can, to good people and to the wicked as well, to Catholics and to unbelievers. For if someone gives Her even the least bit of honor, She will not give up on him, but will bring him to the faith and to repentance.”
• Pray the full Rosary every day—15 decades. St. Louis de Montfort considered the 5-decade Rosary to be for children (see pages 14-15 of The Secret of the Rosary). We are at a time where half-measures are not enough. If we want the full benefit of the promises attached to praying the Rosary, we should strive for 15 decades a day if we can.
• Join or form confraternities, parish groups, and the like to promote devotion to Mary.
• Place our apostolic efforts—whether that be in the arena of art, politics, pro-life, journalism, film, or anything else—under Our Lady’s care.
• Offer a daily prayer consecrating our local bishop to Mary.

We are fortunate that Mary, under the title “The Immaculate Conception,” is the patroness of the United States. We know who will win the battle for the Church and our country in the end. Under her mantle, we can go forward with confidence. If she but nods her head, all the empires of evil will dissolve. But she wants us to participate in this battle and in this victory. We must answer that call.

[Image: The Immaculate Conception by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo]