The spiritual lives of the members of the diocese revolved around the devotions that those born before 1955 knew so well: Saturday evening Confessions in preparation for Sunday Mass and Holy Communion; Sunday afternoon or evening vespers (the first of the old practices to disappear); novenas; Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, with hymns with the beautiful words by St. Thomas Aquinas; Stations of the Cross during Lent; parish May processions and crowning of the statue of the Blessed Virgin. Mass scheduled early on weekday mornings would allow working men to attend-a practice encouraged by Bishop Hartley in 1917. Until the 1960s it was common for the school children to attend daily Mass before the start of classes; to make the First Friday devotions to the Sacred Heart, including monthly Confession; to learn to sing the Mass parts in Latin, including the Dies Irae for funerals. Aside from the liturgical and para-liturgical, the various parish societies, for example the Holy Name Society, the Altar and Rosary Society, and the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, each with a specific function, would keep the things of heaven before the minds of the people.

Behind the scenes, however, trouble was brewing. In 1883, when the diocese was just 25 years old, Pope Leo XIII was given a vision in which Satan was given 100 years to attack the Church. The attack came not only from the outside, as has happened constantly since the Ascension, but also from inside. So shocked was the Pope that he wrote the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, still recited by many today, for the protection of the Church. Modernism, "the synthesis of all heresies," soon was on the rise. It’s three  fundamental errors have been described as the claim that spiritual truths and revelation, all that is not matter of personal experience, cannot be known with certainty; the claim that Holy Scripture and tradition do not contain revelation from God bur only feelings and experiences of human beings; and the claim that Jesus did not found a Church with a divine constitution and immutable dogmas and morals, bur that these are the result ofa gradual evolution and must continue to change with the times. Modernism was killed, it was thought, by Pope St. Pius X in his famous encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis of 1907. However, the movement simply went underground.

Among some scholars and theologians, Modernism became more refined and unified. It broke forth after the death of Blessed Pius XII with four major tenets, namely (1) there has been no public Revelation by God; neither the Bible nor the Church are to be considered trustworthy; (2) science and modern thought are the highest and certain form of knowledge and religion must adapt to them; (3) revelation comes only through inner experience; and (4) the doctrines of the Church are only symbolic and are the evolving expression of man's religious needs, that of his own "self-discovery."

Among the off-shoots of these tenets were ideas, one leading to another, that had practical impacts among the faithful. One such pernicious chain begins with the unquestioning acceptance of the theory of evolution, without any intervention by the Creator, as the immediate source of human nature. This leads to the abandonment of the idea of original sin, resulting in a belief in the essential goodness of human nature. This in turn degrades the Faith to become identified only with secular goals and the pursuit of an earthly paradise. Such teachings led to a loss of the sense of the sacred, the sense that some things are ordained and given by God and are not open to  manipulation by human beings. To the lay Catholic this became most apparent in regard to human sɛҳuąƖity, designed by God for populating not earth but heaven. Outside of the Church the guidance of the popes had been ignored and by the 1960s the world was awash in the counterculture and the "sɛҳuąƖ revolution." This rising tide was met by a line in the sand drawn by Pope Paul VI in 1968 with his encyclical Humanae Vitae. The Church had taught that the purpose of marriage and the marriage act was both unitive, uniting the couple, and procreative, leading to new life. The sɛҳuąƖ revolution attempted to say that the act could be unitive but, using artificial means, not necessarily procreative. The crux of the teaching of the Church through Pope Paul is that the marriage act, if not open to procreation, is not really unitive either, and is against God's plan. Many of the "elite" and the faithful took refuge in the teaching of the primacy of conscience in determining the morality of their acts. Conscience, however, must be formed by the reaching of the Church. The overall result was a divorce rate among Catholics about the same as for the rest of the population; lower Mass attendance; few confessions; fewer children in smaller families; and dangerously low numbers of religious vocations coming from these Catholic families. There was a great loss of priests at this time. Some did not really believe this or other teachings or disciplines of the Church and, disappointed that the teachings would not change, they resigned from the ministry. Others were personally caught up in the sɛҳuąƖ revolution and resigned. Some few, as in every age, found they really did not have a vocation to the priesthood, and resigned or were properly laicized.

The intention of the Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965, was to position the Church to engage the world of today "with the truth about the human condition, given to us by Jesus Christ, who is the answer to the question that is every human life.” The efforts of the revived Modernism led not to any falsehood in the docuмents of the Council, which because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit would not be possible, but to ambiguity. This in turn has led to disagreements, even at the local level as to the correct interpretation and implementation of the changes called for by the Council or looked for in its words. It has been the task of Pope John Paul II to authentically interpret the Council, major signposts along his way being the revised Code of Canon Law (1983) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994). As foretold by Archbishop St. Malachy of Armagh several centuries ago, this Pope has done "the work of the sun" in personally carrying the light of the Gospel to every part of the world. The ride of the sɛҳuąƖ revolution now seems to be receding slightly, and Pope Paul's line in the sand, which some expected to be washed away, still designates the teaching of the Church, calling people everywhere to holiness.  

After the council, the religious orders underwent a crisis. There still is disagreement about the causes, but there is general agreement on some of the effects. There was a clear need for renewal of the orders prior to the Second Vatican Council. Many had retained an authoritarian and regimented lifestyle that discouraged individual thinking and spiritual growth. Traditions were in place that no longer were understood. The orders were unable to serve the present needs of the Church. In the wake of the Council, the congregations were told to take up to twelve years to experiment with changes in their governance and in their manner of living, praying, and working. The experiments involved greatly increased contact with the world, modified dress, access to travel, new prayer styles, and new ministries. Some claim that this renewal process was hijacked by radicals, while others think that not enough guidance was provided for the process and a loss of control was inevitable. Outside influences such as the feminist movement, campus radicalism, theological dissent, and upheaval in society all had an impact. Some religious thought that any change could be acceptable. Some whose vocation was not deep, as well as others who could not accept the changes being made, left the religious life. This, together with the dispersion of Sisters to new ministries, caused the number of teaching and nursing Sisters to drop dramatically. At the same time, a community identity and mission that were apparent to the world, especially to Catholic youths, were lost by many congregations and this contributed to a fall-off in new vocations.

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