Protestant Churches Disappearing; More Catholics Than Total of All 19 Prot. Denominations Listed

Analysis of National Council of Churches' data ^ | March 30, 2006 | Dangus

[sitetest]

Dear dangus,

After a significant fall-off in Boston after the scandals of recent years, and then the closings of a number of parishes, attendance at Mass in Boston is on a (small) upswing. Which means that per parish attendance is actually even greater.


sitetest

[pravknight]

Actually, Hispanics account for the bulk of the Roman Catholic Church's growth in the U.S. Among white ethnics, I have read numbers are actually declining.

[AlaninSA]

That's an inaccurate statement...it would be called hearsay in court.

The bulk of the growth in some parts of the nation (blue states) may be immigrant-based...but here in the Bible Belt (Texas), the majority of parish growth is coming from Protestant converts.

[Conservative til I die]

And yet the Bishops are closing and selling a huge number of small and midsize parishes to raise money to pay off lawyers.

Actually a lot of it is geodemographic shifts. I live in the NY Metro area and in some of the neighborhoods on the West Side of Manhattan that are primarily industrial now, you might have three Churches within a 4-block radius. You might have 500 congregants max across those Churches. Property is extremely expensive in NY. It makes sense to consolidate those parishes.

[Conservative til I die]

This is particularly true in the Catholic Church, it seemed like the more ridged and formal the belief system the greater the flight from that system to the nondenominations.

Easy-believism is always going to be more appealing than hard truth.

[Conservative til I die]

Salvation is not about numbers.

Who said it is? But let's be honest, if this article instead said "Catholic Church in disastrous decline, Protestantism grows by leaps and bounds" you'd be here shouting "Alleluiah, Jesus's message is spreading."

[Conservative til I die]

Isn't the RC church like the Mafia, once you are on the books, you never leave?

No, it's like the Mafia because it's full of Eye-talians. Really, poor choice of comparisons.

[Conservative til I die]

Catholics keep out-and proud homosexuals out of the clergy, don't they?

This has to do with this article...how? Or are you just trolling?

[BlackElk]

Take the gun AND the cannolis and come on back!

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

No I don't beleive that it was that way, I beleive it was the free form of worship that drew many in.

[Larry Lucido]

Easy-believism is always going to be more appealing than hard truth.

Except that many spirit filled evangelicals aren't easy believers, and doctrinaire legalism isn't hard truth. Other than that, is your point appropos of anything?

[ga medic]

That may be true where you are, but in Atlanta there is a sizeable Hispanic immigrant population in the churches. Most parishes offer one or two Spanish masses each week. I don't know whether they are officially registered or not, but they are certainly attending mass in large numbers. When we moved here 12 years ago, our real estate agent told us that "there are lots of religions here, even some of those Catholic people have moved in". Now there are 8 parishes within 15 miles of here, seating 1000+ at 6 or 8 masses per week.

[thoughtomator]

see 52

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

I never said that easy believism was the reason for the non doms I stated the fact that many left dead denominational churches where the Spirit led worship and teaching had been replaced with tradition and legalism.

[Conservative til I die]

Except that many spirit filled evangelicals aren't easy believers, and doctrinaire legalism isn't hard truth. Other than that, is your point appropos of anything?

Possibly you are coming away with a different opinion than mine? That does not make my point not "appropos" of anything.

You look at it as legalism, someone else looks at it as rigidity, I look at as the narrow road.

I wasn't talking about the candles and incense of the liturgy, I was talking about the "so-called" rigidity about sexual morality (homosexuality, contraception, abortion), morality and general, and things like fasting, attending Church every Sunday, etc.

Christianity is more fun when you dumb it down to having the occasional bible study meeting.

[Larry Lucido]

I know. The post was directed at "Conservative til I die."

[nickcarraway]

as the Catholic church teaches, in constant renewal of baptism

Uh, no, that's not true. The Catholic Church teaches you can only be baptised once. In fact, if they suspect you may have been validly baptised before, they will only conditionally baptise you, if you convert.

[John 6.66=Mark of the Beast?]

No problem then.

[Larry Lucido]

I was addressing your attempt at caricature, which fell flat. Many (most, in my experience) evangelicals are NOT "easy believers," and DO oppose homosexuality, contraception (at least the abortefacient variety, if not all), abortion, promiscuity and immorality. They also believe in fasting, prayer and Church attendance. What they may not necessarily believe in is Church-mandated fasting periods, for example. That doesn't make it "Christianity-lite," as some have attempted, incorrectly, to aver (some notable exceptions granted).

[FatherofFive]

In Bratislava, I have a choice of over 10 different beautiful Catholic churches, all within a 5 minute walk of each other.

The churches are indeed beautiful. I am so glad the Church survived the Soviet domination. Those ugly soviet style poured concrete buildings are a scar on the beautiful city of Bratislava.