Resurrection Reclaimed: Easter 2025 and the Call to Courage

Easter Sunday 2025 heralds Liberation Day – a spiritual uprising to cleanse the Catholic Church of corruption and the devil’s influence, much like Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple. After decades of scandals, decline, and complacency, faithful Catholics are declaring “Enough!”. In the bold spirit of Jesus overturning tables, we must confront hard truths and reclaim our Church. The time for passive lament is over; Easter’s promise of new life must ignite a cleansing fire of renewal.

The Collapse of Catholic Education

Once a powerhouse of faith formation, Catholic education in America lies in ruins. The numbers speak volumes about our lost generations and eroding future:

• Catholic schools have imploded in number and size: In the 1960s, the U.S. boasted over 13,000 Catholic schools educating 5.2 million students; today fewer than 6,000 schools remain, serving under 1.6 million​ycvf.org – well under one-third of the peak enrollment. This freefall represents not just shuttered buildings, but millions of souls left without Catholic formation.
• Parochial classrooms sit empty: Urban dioceses report yearly enrollment drops in the double digits​catholic.org. Many Catholic children now receive no religious education at all, as parents cannot afford tuition that has skyrocketed to $4,800 per year for elementary and $10,000+ for high school​catholic.org. Meanwhile, traditional Catholic publishers and textbook companies still demand full price for religion books and curricula. They cling to old profit models, charging struggling schools and parishes as if classrooms were full. It’s a cruel irony – profiteers prosper while our parish schools wither.
• A generation ignorant of Scripture and the Catechism: As one deacon lamented, “Ask any student who graduates from a Catholic school to recite the Ten Commandments. THEY CAN’T!”​catholic.org. The Bible and Catechism have too often been sidelined in our own schools. Our children graduate without basic biblical literacy or moral formation – easy prey for secularism.

These facts should shake every bishop, pastor, and parent to the core. The collapse of Catholic education is not just an educational crisis; it’s a spiritual disaster. Fewer schools and fewer faithful teachers mean fewer young Catholics growing up in truth. The future of the Church is literally being lost.

Paying the Price of Scandal

The devil’s smoke entered the Church in another way: the heinous clergy sexual abuse scandal. The fallout has been spiritual and financial ruin. Dioceses have paid out astronomical sums to victims – money that should have gone to the works of the Gospel. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Los Angeles:

• $1.5 billion in blood money: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles alone has paid out over $1.5 billion in settlements to abuse victims​latimes.com – including a record-shattering $880 million agreement in 2024 to close out a quarter-century of litigation. This is the largest payout by any diocese in history, draining the resources of the largest U.S. archdiocese. Those funds – offered as a measure of justice – also represent millions in donations diverted from ministry to clean up unspeakable sin.
• Donors walking away in disgust: Faithful Catholics have understandably felt betrayed. One Gallup survey found that 1 in 5 churchgoing Catholics stopped donating to their diocese because of the abuse crisis​cbsnews.com. An overwhelming majority demanded financial transparency, suspecting their Sunday offertory was being used for lawyers and “hush money”​cbsnews.com. Who can blame them? When bishops failed to shepherd their flocks, the flocks withheld their tithes. The ripple effect on parishes, charities, and schools has been devastating.

The Church’s credibility has been gravely wounded. Each dollar paid and each soul scandalized is a victory for Satan. But now, on this Liberation Day, the faithful are righteously angry. We recall how Jesus “made a whip of cords” to drive out those who defiled God’s house. With that same holy fury, we declare that no more shall the innocent suffer for the sins of shepherds. No more will we tolerate cover-ups and silence. It’s time to purify the Church, no matter the cost.

A Lost Generation: Fading Faith and Empty Pews

The toll of these failures is evident in our half-empty pews. An entire generation of Catholic youth has drifted from the practice of the faith. They were failed by lukewarm catechesis and the bad example of our scandals. The statistics are alarming:

• Youth Mass attendance has plummeted: Only 13% of young adult Catholics (age 18–35) attended Mass weekly before the pandemic​americamagazine.org. Think about that – nearly 9 out of 10 young Catholics were already skipping Sunday Mass, violating the 3rd Commandment, even before COVID offered a further excuse. Even more disturbing, 73% of young Catholics now believe they can be “good Catholics” without attending weekly Mass​americamagazine.org. This is a direct rejection of Christ’s command, “Do this in memory of Me,” and shows how badly our leaders have failed to convey the importance of the Eucharist.
• Biblical literacy in Catholic homes is virtually non-existent: Yes, Catholic families have Bibles on their shelves – 87% of Catholic adults own a Bible​recoletos.ph – but too many gather dust. Only about 25% of U.S. Catholics read Scripture even once a week​arkansas-catholic.org. Shockingly, nearly 1 in 3 Catholics never read the Bible at all​recoletos.ph. Is it any wonder our society is adrift, when generations of Catholics don’t know God’s Word or His commandments? We allowed CCD classes and family devotions to lapse, and the world rushed in to fill the void. Our Lord’s lament rings true: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

This lost generation is not merely “fallen away” – many were never formed to begin with. They are victims of a Church that went soft on truth. The devil’s greatest triumph is a silent one: not noisy atheism, but apathetic ignorance. We must awaken these souls. No more compromise! Our youth don’t need watered-down “Catholic lite” or trendy teachings – they need the unfiltered Gospel, taught with conviction.

Profiteers in the Temple: Misplaced Priorities

While the faithful struggle, some Catholic institutions and leaders continue with business-as-usual, accruing wealth and serving mammon over God. It is time to shine light on these profiteers in the temple:

• Catholic educational publishers – companies that publish religion textbooks and curricula – have shown little mercy to dying Catholic schools. Despite plummeting enrollment, they continue charging full price and even raising prices for their materials. Pastors and principals trying to keep schools afloat are handed exorbitant invoices for books that many families can’t afford. This is a scandal in its own right: making money off what should be the Church’s mission. On Liberation Day, we call them out. We remember Jesus’ wrath at those who “sold doves” in the Temple for profit – how is this different? Stop turning faith formation into a business venture.
• So-called Catholic universities enjoy prestige and massive endowments while often betraying the faith. Take the University of Notre Dame. It enrolls only about 8,900 undergraduates (under 12,000 students total)​en.wikipedia.org – a drop in the bucket of the Catholic population – yet controls an endowment of $16 billion​en.wikipedia.org. Yes, sixteen billion with a “B”! Notre Dame could fund the religious education of every Catholic child in America out of its interest earnings alone. Instead, what do we see? Lavish campus projects, $80,000/year tuitions, and often a lukewarm commitment to upholding Catholic teaching. The same story repeats at Georgetown, Boston College, and others. Enormous resources, minimal evangelization. Are these institutions serving Christ or worldly prestige? We call on them to examine their consciences – and their budgets. The first universities were founded by the Church to serve all Christ’s people, not to become gated communities for the elite.
• Catholic charities entangled with government money: In recent years, Catholic charitable agencies (Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, and the USCCB’s migration office) have taken billions in federal funds to administer social programs – especially programs for refugees and migrants. Under the banner of serving the poor, they have unintentionally become addicted to Caesar’s coin. In fact, Catholic Charities USA in one recent year received about $1.4 billion from government sources, surpassing the $1.0 billion from church donations​congress.gov. Many local Catholic Charities now rely almost entirely on federal grants. For example, Catholic Charities Fort Worth’s revenue exploded to $289 million in 2023 – with $270 million of that coming from government contracts​city-journal.org! This raises a grave moral question: Have we sold out our prophetic voice? When a charity’s funding depends on an open-border immigration policy, can it freely speak truth about the situation? Senator J.D. Vance recently challenged the USCCB, asking whether Catholic officials are “worried about humanitarian concerns, or … their bottom line” when they accept hundreds of millions to resettle illegal immigrants​city-journal.org. The optics are terrible: the Church appears to be profiting from lawlessness, with some diocesan charities effectively acting as subcontractors in the federal government’s border fiasco. This must be remedied. True Christian charity “seeks not its own interests”; it must never be for sale.

On this point, let’s be clear: helping refugees and immigrants is a corporal work of mercy and long a proud mission of the Church. But the means matter. Taking $3+ billion in government funds (with strings attached) to do it may inadvertently entangle the Church with policies that harm the common good – and harm souls (through human trafficking, exploitation of migrants, and erosion of law). We call on Catholic charitable leaders to free themselves from any financial arrangements that even appear to benefit from evil or enable sin. “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

A New Hope: Free, Faithful Education for All

Despite this bleak landscape, a light of hope has emerged – a truly Catholic response rising from the ashes of the old system. In the spirit of the New Evangelization, Your Catholic Voice Foundation (YCVF) and Catholic Online School have pioneered a modern solution: free, orthodox Catholic education accessible to anyone, anywhere. This initiative is nothing short of revolutionary:

• Largest Catholic school in history: Founded just a few years ago, Catholic Online School (an outreach of YCVF) has already enrolled over 1.5 million students across 193 countries​ycvf.org​ycvf.org. Yes, one and a half million children and adults are learning the faith through free video lessons – more than the total number of students in all U.S. Catholic schools combined. The platform offers 10,000+ lessons covering the Catechism, Scripture, Sacraments, lives of Saints, and more​ycvf.org. Every course is true to the Magisterium – no dissenting theologians or watered-down doctrine. This is world-class catechesis at zero cost.
• Breaking the pay-to-pray model: Unlike traditional textbook publishers, Catholic Online School charges nothing. It relies on donations and the passion of volunteer educators, echoing the spirit of the early Church which held all things in common. This model shames the old regime. No Catholic child should be denied a religious education because of money! Finally, here is an answer: any parent, catechist, or pastor can access quality materials without cost barriers. This “loaves and fishes” approach multiplies resources for all.
• Magisterial content for a new generation: YCVF’s curriculum doesn’t shy from truth. Students are challenged to learn the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the works of mercy – the fundamentals of our faith that too many Catholic schools neglected. They engage with Scripture directly (not just as an afterthought). They learn authentic Church history and apologetics to defend their faith. In short, this is a faithful Catholic education, not embarrassed by Catholicism but proud of it. It’s exactly what is needed to re-form the lost generation. Every bishop in America should be promoting this platform to supplement parish programs and fill gaps where schools have closed.

YCVF and Catholic Online School represent the kind of bold innovation and fidelity that Liberation Day is all about. They have taken the Devil’s narrative of decline and turned it on its head – proving that with zeal and the Holy Spirit, we can evangelize millions without a single brick-and-mortar classroom. This is the model of the Acts of the Apostles brought into the digital age. We, the laity, are stepping up where some clergy failed, carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth with creative courage.

Cleansing the Temple: A Call to Action

Jesus Christ did not meekly tolerate the corruption of His Father’s house – and neither can we. As we celebrate Easter 2025, we also commemorate the Passover cleansing when Our Lord purged the Temple of greed, hypocrisy, and sacrilege. The Gospels tell us Jesus “poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables” (John 2:15). Imagine the shock of that moment! It was an act of righteous anger born of holy love. We need that fire again in every diocese, every parish, every Catholic heart.

It is time to overturn the tables in our Church:

• Overturn the complacency that has let Catholic education crumble. Demand orthodox teaching and accountability. Support free initiatives like Catholic Online School that put souls above profits. Insist that every Catholic child learn the faith – no excuses.
• Overturn the culture of silence and cover-up. No more “hush money” settlements without transparency. No more keeping abusers in shadow. The laity must hold our leaders to the highest standards of truth and purification. As St. Peter wrote, “Judgment begins with the household of God.” Let Easter 2025 be the day that purification begins in earnest.
• Overturn false teachings and cowardly catechesis. We must re-embrace the Ten Commandments in full – all ten of them, with no picking and choosing. The moral law of God is not a buffet from which we take only what we like. As St. Augustine warned, “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”​marylake.com We renounce the idol of self. Liberation Day means liberation from lies – including the lies of the sexual revolution and moral relativism that have infiltrated even Catholic circles.
• Overturn the modern-day idols of gender ideology and neo-paganism. The Church must loudly reject the transgender lie that we can recreate ourselves – “Male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27) remains an eternal truth, affirmed by the Catechism: God gives each of us our sexual identity, which we must accept and live in complementarity​usccb.org. To claim otherwise is to reject God’s perfection in creation. Similarly, we reject the hubris that we can genetically modify God’s creation without consequence. Pope Francis echoed Pope Benedict XVI in Laudato Si’, reminding us that “man has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will”. We are stewards, not gods. This Easter, let every Catholic say “No” to playing God – whether in tinkering with human gender or with the seeds of the earth.
• Overturn the prioritization of money over mission. Tell Catholic universities to use their vast endowments for true evangelization or risk losing the next generation entirely. Tell Catholic charities to serve the poor first as an act of faith, not as paid contractors for secular agendas. If federal funds require compromising Catholic teaching (for example, on contraception or LGBT issues in relief programs), reject the funds and trust in God’s providence. Better to be a poorer Church than an unfaithful one. We will not be servants of Caesar’s coin.

Finally, and most importantly, reclaim your own soul and your parish. Liberation Day is not just an institutional call – it’s deeply personal. Each of us must cast out the devil’s influence in our own life. This means going back to Confession, seeking holiness in our families, observing the Lord’s Day, and centering our homes on prayer and Scripture. Reclaim the beauty of a Catholic home: a crucifix on the wall, the family Rosary, the Bible enthroned on a table, and the lives of the saints inspiring your children. The renewal of the Church begins with you and me living as uncompromising disciples of Jesus Christ.

This Easter, let us arise as one Church, renewed and unafraid. We proclaim that Christ is risen – and with Him rises a cleansed, liberated Church. No more devilish bondage to sin, error, and greed. We pledge fidelity to the fullness of the Gospel. We will speak truth boldly, love our Lord passionately, and live our faith authentically.

On Easter 2025, our liberated cry goes forth: “Away with all that is not of God’s will! We reclaim our Church in the name of Jesus!” Like the Apostles after Pentecost, we will turn the world upside down with the truth. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

United with the Risen Christ, let us rebuild His Church. Liberation Day is here – and the victory is ours in Him. Alleluia!