The grapevine has it that many Catholics skip Mass frequently because they “don’t get anything out of it.” Others appeal to the clergy sex abuse scandals of recent decades, saying they don’t want to associate with a church that harbored abusers for so many years. Some have even chosen to transfer to Protestant churches or recently established alternative forms of “Catholicism,” complaining that they can no longer tolerate a church that relegates women to a second-class status.

I understand, and I sympathize. Yet I hardly ever miss Mass… click here to read more.