Study: Catholics losing the faith

Medill Reports ^ | Feb 27, 2008 | Greg Trotter

[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.”

[Barnacle]

The RC edifice has been around approximately 1600 years.

The Roman Catholic Church is merley a continuation of the very church founded by Jesus Christ 1,500 miles southeast. New headquarters, same church with an unbroken line of apostle leadership going back to Peter himself.

[Barnacle]

And that 1600 years has been a very, VERY checkered existence, (to be kindly putting it).

And, the record of your church over the last 1,600 years is...?

Come to think of it, what is your church? Hopefully you, like so many Catholic bashing cowards on FR are not afraid to say.

[Quix]

UTTER RUBBER HISTORY HOGWASH.

Christ MOST RAILED

at the religious hierarchy of His dusty pathed days.

He was NOT AT ALL interested in establishing another such

fleshy, !!!!TRADITION!!!! bound, arrogant, political, power mongering, rigid, narrow, prissy, pontifical

little club

of RELIGIOUS leaders who’d load the serfs with burdens they weren’t willing to shoulder themselves.

Seems to me biases are clouding the eyes virtually totally.

Rubber histories do not = truth.

######

Even if one believed the lie as promulgated . . .

the anointing, authority and power of God wholesale left the RC edifice long ago—if it ever resided there at all.

[Quix]

I’m basically a Pentecostal/Charismatic.

AS I’ve noted hereon fairly endlessly.

I manage the END TIMES/ DREAMS/ VISIONS/ PROPHECY ping list, BTW.

Perhaps you’re new here?

[Quix]

BTW,

Christ’s Church Universal

[vs the Roman club]

has ALWAYS had at least a remnant from Pentecost, on.

The members have been part of other congregations and often enough without a formal congregation of any ‘legal’ sort.

Thankfully, Holy Spirit has always had their addresses.

[Petronski]

He was NOT AT ALL interested in establishing another such fleshy, !!!!TRADITION!!!! bound, arrogant, political, power mongering, rigid, narrow, prissy, pontifical little club of RELIGIOUS leaders who’d load the serfs with burdens they weren’t willing to shoulder themselves.

Of course He wasn't.

Instead, he founded His Holy Roman Catholic Church.

[Quix]

QX:
He was NOT AT ALL interested in establishing another such fleshy, !!!!TRADITION!!!! bound, arrogant, political, power mongering, rigid, narrow, prissy, pontifical little club of RELIGIOUS leaders who’d load the serfs with burdens they weren’t willing to shoulder themselves.

Of course He wasn't.

Instead, he founded His Holy Roman Catholic Church.

THAT'S A GOOD ONE!

I gather that all the RC edifice mirrors are still shattered! LOL.

BTW, May God's mercy, wholeness, guidance, knowledge, wisdom and blessings be with you and those you Love this Resurrection season.

[Hacksaw]

fleshy, !!!!TRADITION!!!! bound, arrogant, political, power mongering, rigid, narrow, prissy, pontifical little club of RELIGIOUS leaders who’d load the serfs with burdens they weren’t willing to shoulder themselves.

[Barnacle]

God said no more water based global destruction. This time, it’s by . . . fire...

That won't be a problem since I'll be out at sea.

As to any on board fires that might break out...

I have a crew member to handle that too.

[Quix]

I certainly never claimed the RC edifice had a monopoly on such evils.

BTW, Jim B served time and repented wholesale and has shown fruits of repentance in his behaviors since.

Which Pope ever did that for their wholesale evils?

[Quix]

I thought you said

putting fires . . . . OUT!

[Barnacle]

I manage the END TIMES/ DREAMS/ VISIONS/ PROPHECY ping list, BTW.

Perhaps you’re new here?

I am hardly "new here".

Perhaps I haven't heard about it because I don't give a rat's ass about...

[Barnacle]

LOL

[Quix]

You won’t need to ‘keep that post in mind’ because at a certain future point in time,

you’ll most vividly remember it . . .

BTW, are you US Navy or some other sort of sailor?

[Petronski]

Only evil could drive one to laugh at His Church like that. I pity you.

[Hacksaw]

I certainly never claimed the RC edifice had a monopoly on such evils.

Yet you singled them out for attack - for doing something that appears to be quite popular among evangelicals. That is being a hypocrite.

BTW, Jim B served time and repented wholesale and has shown fruits of repentance in his behaviors since.

Good for him.

Which Pope ever did that for their wholesale evils?

I don't recall any Pope being jailed for accounting fraud. Your question is a non-sequiter anyway.

I'm also wondering why you pinged all those people. Can't you, Dr. Eck, and all the others make a single post without other people's help?

[Hacksaw]

Perhaps I haven't heard about it because I don't give a rat's ass about...

LOL! You're going to go straight to hell for that.

[Quix]

Actually,

Scripture speaks of God having the evil folks in derision.

and, the most evil folks Christ railed at the most

were hierarchical pontifical political power mongering

RELIGIOUS leaders.

Scripture is rife with satire, hyperbole, and particularly of the puffed up getting sharp pokes.

BTW, I haven’t laughed

AT

The Church Universal . . . The Believers increasingly of every tribe and nation . . . in and out of every Christian Club.

I have absolutely no respect for those who delude the innocent and lead the young ones into idolatry, blasphemous idolatry and the like. They will be held most accountable.

But ALL CHRISTIANS will be increasingly challenged to let go of their respective

CHRISTIAN CLUBS

and cleave utterly and ONLY TO CHRIST ALONE.

As I’ve noted . . .

folks in the RC edifice cannot authentically sing the song line . . .

” HE ALONE IS WORTH ALL OUR PRAISE. “

Sad . . . utterly sad and horrific, that.

[Petronski]

I have absolutely no respect for those who delude the innocent and lead the young ones into idolatry, blasphemous idolatry and the like.

You have no self-respect at all?

Pity that.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Thanks for the ping, Quix, and for the thread, Alex.

Bookmarked.

"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god" -- Psalm 16:4