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 Catholicisms 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 studys findings.
The Church is falling behind, said Deck, executive director of cultural diversity for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We dont have enough foot soldiers.
The Churchs 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.
Its 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.
There is a saying in the law that “hard cases make bad law.” May apply to theology as well.
Works for me.
Thanks.
Then one is not a believing Catholic, obviously. However, it is far more likely that I will be crucified for not believing Obama is infalliable than you are for not believing the same regarding His Holiness.
You might want to ask permission - a strange concept - to put your words in his mouth next time.
It is contrary to the Catholic faith to consider Mary a goddess or “Jr goddess” as was the slur you put.
You have been informed by Roman Catholics innumerable times on these posts that Catholics are forbidden by their faith to worship Mary - yet your persist time after time with that particular slur.
You should read any of the first thru fourth century Church historians - any one of them - you choose - and do it today not as you put it “decades ago”.
Oh but I forgot, you are “too busy”, it’s not “a priority for you”, you read them “decades ago” and remember them vividly - as they were seared yes seared upon your brain - all those writings by all of those authors as Roman Catholic.
Lurking’
I think I’m missing any meaty point to the post . . . unless it’s just a flailing rant.
Which . . . is fine with me.
“magicsterical” another one of your little slurs on our Roman Catholic beliefs.
A little play on our Catholic Church’s Magisterium as if its “magic” and “hysterical”.
You post slur after slur on the Roman Catholic faith and think nothing of it -
If I didn’t know better John 6:60-66 may have been written just for you.
Lurking’
“Next youll start saying that Mary was just a woman instead of a Jr goddess.”
Now now, I she did raise our Lord, so honestly I have a special place in my heart for her. I likely would not put her on the same pedestal that Catholics seem to though.
post after post your biased slurs directly attack our Roman Catholic faith.
If you think my calling on you to respond with reasoned discourse based upon your quoting actual historical texts is a flailing rant, then you are no gentleman and are a very poor representative of your faith.
Lurking
I appreciate your feeling for Mary as I have come to have a particular fealty for Her.
I often think of Her words to the wine-servants at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you to do.”
I get the feeling at times that She was addressing that to me, and I do try and follow Her exhortation.
Regards,
Lurking’
Hmmmmmm
What an interesting construction on reality.
I respect all Mary did for our Lord.
I respect her place in history.
I’m apalled, dismayed, outraged at what the enemy of our souls has turned her into in one of our oldest Christian clubs.
...specifically to the needs of minority????? give me a break! Should be EVERYONE!!!
Really?
Not my reality.
SAVING FAITH
is something between the heart and spirit of an individual and God.
It is UNASSAILABLE. My worst, most fleshly, most awful whatevers could not touch a sub-atomic particle’s worth of SAVING FAITH between any individual and God.
ALL ELSE IS CHAFF.
Now folks may carry around little viles of gilded chaff . . . bow down to them, prostrate themselves before them, pray to them, write poems and songs to them, place them in home and club altars . . . revere them, venerate them, worship them.
But they are still chaff.
Being a conoseur of chaff is NOT one of my life goals.
Hmmmmmm
What an interesting construction on reality.
Amen......also ABORTION and Birth Control are other reasons...... these people don't trust GOD anymore. sad
Waaaay more FUN going to church when you feel like it or have a new dress.
Sometimes I try to avoid being boring.
Nice to see you are alive and kicking today.
Have a blessed week.
time to take a shower and wash you off.
If it weren't for the older English of the Bible and of worship books, most people would think that redemption was something that happened to coupons or bonds..
Yeah the Pope is just a man. My point was the guy was telling me that because he thought I didn't think so -- HE thought I thought the Pope was infallible And impeccable. He believed something about our teaching that wasn't true. There's a lot of that going around.
What we so often get is people coming up to us compassionately or aggressively and attacking us or commiserating with us because they are just persuaded that we believe something that we don't believe and do something we don't do. It gets old.
Tra la.
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