A Luke-warm approach
Some random thoughts on the above topic
*Many of our young baptised Catholics as they come to the end of schooling -or even before that- do not recognise any need for organised religion; indeed some become agnostic or even atheist.
*They say these will come back when they settle down and start their own family...experience shows this isn't necessarily so.
*Some of us older Catholics too get lukewarm along the way and become equally casual or even dismissive of the need for "organised religion".
*WE HAVE BECOME TOO COMFORTABLE AND MATERIALISTIC. I instance the recent enough history of Australian seminaries. These were bursting their seams back in the 50s and 60s with enthusiastic, idealistic young men after the dark days of the Great Depression, WW2 and the Korean War. Yet by the late 80s and 90s these same seminaries were near deserted and the properties often recycled -some as retirement villages, schools, even the odd police academy and boutique hotel.
*Like the Israelites of the Old Testament, we make our own gods- money, career, travel, fame, luxurious living, carefree retirement etc. None of these of course are bad in themselves but focus on any or all of these as an end in themselves to the near exclusion of all other values identifies us pretty well with the good pagan -- certainly neither Catholic or even Christian.
*While you can't just blame performance of parishes or their ministers for the loss of their congregations - though some of the offerings -including Mass liturgies themselves- in some parishes can be pretty ordinary and can fail to adequately address the life challenges of their congregations.
*As you may know Bishop Tom Frame, an Anglican Bishop, has written a book about the waning of Christian belief and practice in Australia and I am looking forward to reading it soon. I don't know whether he has any answers either.
I hope your exhortation elicits some really positive and effective ideas for implementation!