Dom Aidan Bellenger, former Abbot of Downside Abbey and a leading historian of the monastic life, made this assertion in an article in The Tablet.

He suggested that communities had made "too much accommodation with consumerist ideals of the modern world, too many credit cards, too many expensive holidays".

"A decline in the number of vocations has combined with the ageing of the communities, and a tendency to middle class stagnation, strangulation by comfort and gerontocracy," Dom Aidan wrote.

He stated that many of the problems were to do with money and finance.

He also argued that the running of schools and parishes have taken religious away from their foundational ideas.

Traditionally communities have run schools, parishes and other institutions and have sought to balance the call to be contemplatives with work in the world.

Last year, Pope Francis proclaimed a Year for Consecrated Life, running from November, 2014, to February, 2016.

In his apostolic letter announcing the year, Pope Francis noted that he did this "on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life".

In his apostolic letter, the Pope challenged religious to examine themselves in terms of their openness to the Gospel, and whether it is truly the "manual" for daily living for them.

"The Gospel is demanding: it demands to be lived radically and sincerely," the Pope wrote.

"It is not enough to read it (even though the reading and study of Scripture is essential), nor is it enough to meditate on it (which we do joyfully each day).

"Jesus asks us to practice it, to put his words into effect in our lives."

Sources

• The Tablet
• Vatican papal statements
• Image: The Times

With Catholicism losing ground especially among the young and city-dwellers, only 46 per cent of the population of Rio de Janeiro — the city that will host the Pope — now identifies as Catholic.

"Between 1970 and 2000, the share of the population that identifies as Catholic fell even though the number of Catholics in the country rose," said the report from the Pew Research Center.

"But in the most recent decade, from 2000 to 2010, both the absolute number and the percentage of Catholics declined. Brazil's Catholic population fell slightly from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million a decade later, dropping from 74 per cent to 65 per cent of the country's total population."

The report shows that the Catholic Church has been challenged by the continuing ascent of Protestant churches, particularly the fast-growing Pentecostal denominations, an accelerating secularism and religious indifference, and even a rise in "spiritism".

Between 1970 and 2010 the number of Brazilians with no religious affiliation jumped from less than 1 million to 15 million.

Pew researchers found that the number of Brazilian Protestants, conversely, continued to grow in the most recent decade, rising from 26 million in 2000 to 42 million (22 per cent of the population) in 2010.

Membership of Pentecostal churches more than doubled between 1991 and 2010.

Pew said the main factor in the growth of Protestantism in Brazil appeared to be religious switching, or movement from one religious group to another. A 2006 Pew survey of Brazilian Pentecostals suggested that 45 per cent had converted from Catholicism.

Catholicism has been the country's dominant religious tradition since the era of Portuguese colonisation in the 16th century.

Brazil has about 400 Catholic bishops, nearly 11,000 parishes and about 13,000 diocesan priests. There are roughly 483,000 catechists and 11,500 seminarians.

Sources:

America

National Catholic Reporter

Image: Urban Christian News

The statistics also indicated that there had been a significant decrease in the numbers of people who described themselves as Christian - with a decline from 71.3% to 68.5%.

In real terms, the study would indicate that in a total population of more than 60 million, there are approximately 14 million people in Great Britain without any religious beliefs.

The survey found that those aged between 25 and 34 were the most likely to have turned away from their faith, while those over 65 were more likely to have expressed a faith preference.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the ONS findings reflected "the long term decline in church attendance".

This is projected to continue "as the young practically desert the churches and congregations rapidly age", he said.

Dr Dave Landrum, director of advocacy at the Evangelical Alliance, argued that the true figure for active Christians would be even lower than the numbers reported by the ONS.

"Ticking a box does not make you a Christian and given the state of our society it is doubtful all of those who self-identify as Christians actually are," he said.

The study showed that the proportion of the population of Britain who were Muslims increased, from 4.2% in 2010 to 4.4% this year.

There was also a small rise in the proportion of people describing themselves as Sikh while the percentages of Jews and Hindus fell slightly.

The ONS Integrated Household Survey was based on responses from more than 420,000 individuals, making it the largest sample of British life after the census.

Source: The Telegraph