Tale of two cities

Growing up in Pittsburgh, It was taken for granted that Catholics were the majority (or greatest of plurality) denomination and that almost every parish had an affiliated K-8 school. There were, I think, 6 or 7 Catholic HS in the immediate vicinity of Pittsburgh. The mergers didn't start to happen until after 2000 or so. "Susan from the Parish Council" everywhere. People show up to mass, but for the large part just go through the motions.

Moving to the South was an eye opener in terms of Catholicity. Now I'm in a distinct minority. I live near a city almost Pittsburgh sized, and while a few of the parishes close to the city have parish schools, the vast majority in the diocese do not. The diocese covers almost half the state, but the population is 1/10 of the diocese of Pittsburgh. Out in the suburbs and beyond is truly "mission territory" (I think we are still designated as such by the Holy See). The 2 closest parishes to me are 15 and 25 minutes, and there is one parish that serves 3 counties. The great irony is that EWTN headquarters is 15 minutes away. But the parishes themselves are vibrant and tight-knit. To be a Catholic down here among so many Baptists and other evangelicals, one really has to eat their Wheaties so to speak.

Anyway, sorry for the big background, but it's formed my minsdet. I am prepared for a large contraction, as then-Fr. Ratzinger stated in 1969: "From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision. As a small society, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. Undoubtedly it will discover new forms of ministry and will ordain to the priesthood approved Christians who pursue some profession. In many smaller congregations or in self-contained social groups, pastoral care will normally be provided in this fashion. Along-side this, the full-time ministry of the priesthood will be indispensable as formerly. But in all of the changes at which one might guess, the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world."

Sorry for the wordiness, but it's a long-winded way of saying I somewhat agree with you. I'm ready for scaling-back.

Click here for link at https://aleteia.org/2016/06/13/when-cardinal-joseph-ratzinge