Ratzinger on "bourgeois Pelagianism" on the stats

"Contrary to the attitude that whatever appears to be wrong with the contemporary Church must be somehow the work of the Holy Spirit, even if it is not obvious how or why, Ratzinger has written that the criterion that Jeremiah laid down remains valid: 'the proclamation of empirical success is to be judged by empirical criteria and cannot rely on theology.'"

Tracey Rowland, "Variations on the theme of Christian hope in the work of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI," Communio: international Catholic review 35:2 (Summer 2008): 209-210. Cited here is The Yes of Jesus Christ, pp. 41-51. The lines immediately preceding were, "Often bourgeois Pelagians react strongly against all criticisms of secularizing post-conciliar practices and the concerns of those who worry that there might be problems with the reception of the conciliar call for renewal and with popular interpretations of conciliar documents. When presented with statistical data about plummeting Mass attendance rates, the even smaller numbers going to Confession, and the rather large numbers cohabitating before marriage, contracepting and so on, the bourgeois Pelagians are likely to reply that the younger post-conciliar generations simply have different ways of expressing their spirituality. Against these kinds of reactions Ratzinger has spoken of the 'arrogance of apostasy which is a parody of faith and hope.' He has also drawn analogies between the attitudes of contemporary bourgeois Pelagians and those who imprisoned the prophet Jeremiah for his pessimism. He observes that in the time of Jeremiah 'the official optimism of the military, the nobility, the priesthood, and the establishment prophets demanded the conviction that God would protect his city and his temple. However, they were all wrong. They ignored all the evidence to the contrary and 'downgraded God to become the guarantee of human success and the justification for their irrationalism.' Contrary to the attitude that whatever appears to be wrong with the contemporary Church must be somehow the work of the Holy Spirit, even if it is not obvious how or why, Ratzinger has written that the criterion that Jeremiah laid down remains valid: 'the proclamation of empirical success is to be judged by empirical criteria and cannot rely on theology.'"