Posted on 03/01/2008 7:26:21 AM PST by Alex Murphy
WASHINGTON — In the marketplace of American faith, Catholicism is the big loser.
No other religion in the United States has lost more members to other faiths, or to no faith at all, than Catholicism, according to the new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The survey, conducted in 2007, found that 31 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but less than 25 per cent of them still identify as Catholic.
Roughly 10 percent of all Americans have strayed from Catholic roots, the study reported.
Despite the loss, the survey shows that Catholics still represent nearly a quarter of the American population – just as surveys conducted in the early 1970s found.
So how does a religion lose so many members and continue to break even?
“It may well be that a factor in the Catholic numbers are the repeated waves of immigration,” said John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum.
The study found that almost half of all immigrants coming into the U.S. are Catholics, most of them from Latin-American countries.
The wave of immigration is changing the make-up of Catholicism. Latinos represent 45 percent of all Catholics aged 18-29 years, while only accounting for 20 percent of Catholics aged 50-59.
Much of Catholicism’s loss can be chalked up to previous generations of immigrants assimilating into American culture and remaining less faithful to their ethnic identities and religions, Green said.
“That kind of assimilation is typical for any ethnic group,” said Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research and Apostolate, at Georgetown University. “And it affects all religions – not just Catholicism.”
Her research indicates the Catholic Church is positioned in a dynamic and vital place in time, Gautier said. But there are challenges to keeping the faithful in the pews. Intermarriages, dwindling numbers of priests, and insufficient church facilities are reasons why people might go elsewhere, she said.
The Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J., was not surprised by the study’s findings.
“The Church is falling behind,” said Deck, executive director of cultural diversity for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We don’t have enough foot soldiers.”
The Church’s teachings are not out of place with the times, Deck said, but there is a shortage of priests and lay ministers to spread the word, and effectively link parishoners to the Gospel.
“It’s our mission to evangelize and we are failing that,” said Deck, explaining that the term ‘evangelize’ includes the “conversion of the human heart and the promotion of social justice.”
The Catholic Church also struggles to reach out specifically to the needs of minority communities, such as blacks, Asians and Hispanics, said Deck, who has spent his career in the Hispanic ministry. And the assimilation of immigrants into the Church and also American culture is a tricky balance, he said.
“We have to be very careful,” Deck said. “Our role is to promote the Gospel, not any particular culture – not even American culture.”
If you pay attention, you will find that there is a scarcity of argument or dialog in their discourse. Instead they make up insulting words and use them perseveratively. They pronounce statements, but do not back them up with source or reason. They respond to disagreement with put-downs like "hogwash". They do not recognize any obligation to back up their statements, but profess that they are their own authority. "Having the last word" - even if it's only a word of abuse, is often very important to them.
When their manner of discourse is criticized they will blame the pain they cause on their victims by
(1) asserting that the statement of, for example, Catholic opinion is so provocative that they cannot restrain themselves from responding; and
(2) arguing that posted words have only the power their reader gives them.
The obvious contradiction between these two propositions escapes their notice.
When they are treated as they treat others, they comment on the unfairness and cruelty of such treatment and then proclaim with self-conscious nobility that to be targeted for such abuse is meritorious.
Verb. Sap.
I'm OK with a smaller, purer Church!
My heart goes out to you, though. But here is where the laity can really make the difference. Seriously however "pious" it sounds, I think that the suffering cause by lousy bishops is good material to offer up. Through prayer God works wonders, and your children and children's children may see the blessed fruits of your discomfort. Papa Ben is, I think, so good that we can reasonably hope for a good successor, and the scourge of liberal bishops will finally be withdrawn from our backs.
The major disappointment for me, a non-RC, about the new pope is his urging of the high Latin Mass back into the church liturgy. I say this because I do not know too many of you who really understand the meaning of Latin and I also liken it to the criticism I have with my church's decision to go back to Rite 1 during the Lenten season with its emphasis on Elizabethan English.
A few years back it was pointed out to me by a very faithful minister of the Gospel who was neither RC or Anglican that prayer should be made in the language you're most comfortable with...example, which is more appropriate:
Thou go great majesty whose providence is always to grant mercy, I do beseech thee to grant my plea to have an ability to transport my beloved tonight to thy great and exalted place of worship...
Or:
Dad, can I borrow the car tonight to take my girlfriend to the church dance?
Are you as aggressive and condemning towards your fellow Catholics who are charismatics or are interested in end times prophecy? It seems a little over the top to call seeking a closer connection to the holy spirit or to seek to understand end times prophecy as “loony tunes.” I’m neither pentacostal nor Catholic, but I hate to see fellow Christians waste their time bashing each other and even worse hurting the image of Christians overall when non-Christians read these posts; particularly in the context of Free Republic where presumably we are also fellow conservatives.
“When J2P2 was dying, one of the deputies kept saying to me, “He’s just a man.” I was confused until I realized that he was one of the many who have listened to those who hate Catholicism to form his opinion about what the Church teaches.”
Now I get to sound even more ignorant; What “deputies?” and the Pope IS just a man....isn’t he?
Well I can tell you one thing. After reading your entire post I understand why I am not a Catholic. Just seems like an awful lot of stuff to learn and understand.
Over on the Protestant side, just got the Bible and for many that is hard enough. I don’t any real animosity for you folks, you believe in Jesus, same as me and mine.
According to my beliefs, we’ll be meeting up in Heaven.
Other groups like the pente-whatever, tele-evangelicals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. are not Christian but on the contrary do the evil one’s work by leading people astray
= = =
From my perspective, that’s a kool-aid construction on reality.
You seem to forget . . .
The RC book burners didn’t SUCCESSFULLY DESTROY all the ‘non-kosher’ early documents.
LOL.
Really?
LOL.
What a lovely little label:
little snipe Quix
I haven’t been called something like that since . . . goodness when . . . Navy days???
teen search games in the woods days?
LOL.
Perhaps you didn’t read . . . magicsterical is a short-hand for a long paragraph about ALL ecclesiastical hierarchical RELIGIOUS governning bodies.
It just so happens that the RC version is the worst and most convenient example.
TRC — don’t you understand? Only Quix has the gift of knowledge, the gnosis, to know God, and the only way for us to learn is at the feet of Quix to gain this esoteric gnosis
= = =
Oh, goodness.
Really?
Why didn’t someone send me a memo! I *MIGHT* have fasted and prayed more! LOL.
Enjoy that construction on reality.
Authentic history will catch-up with all of us soon enough.
Hogwash.
Thanks for a worthy exhortation.
RC’s
CERTAINLY DO
SEEM to think, believe and practice
that THEY AND ONLY THEY
deserve a FREE PASS . . . perhaps an INDULGENCE?
on the AVOID MAKING IT PERSONAL thing.
Oh, dear!
Next you’ll start saying that Mary was just a woman instead of a Jr goddess.
Then the fur will fly, for sure!
My bias is that
IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP dynamics, perspectives, feelings, customs, . . .
make for poor theology.
Always have. Will until Jesus Returns.
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