Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, criticized the US bishops in a recent interview. He said that in order to address the decline in faith in the US, the bishops should learn from the approach taken by Latin American bishops at their meeting in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007.
Since the Aparecida meeting, however, “the number of Brazilians who darken the door of a church at least once a week has dropped by a quarter,” The Pillar notes. “Whatever effects the evangelization developed through the synodal process of Aparecida may have had, it does not seem to have resulted in the countries of Central and South America being more successful at retaining members than is the Church in the US.”