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.”
That
little pebble
was never any power mongering, pontifical, idolatrous, RELIGIOUS edifice POLITICAL HISTORY MANGLER
in or out of Rome.
is yours a mainstream protestant coffee preference?
Lurking’
Please name these wars of conquests that the Pope's spearheaded. I ALWAYS find it interesting how people disregard Christ's True Church for it's supposedly checkered history but rarely will renounce their American citizenship; our country has a far more egregious history than ANY church (except for the Jim Jones one, but he wasn't Catholic).
If you are as !!!TRADITIONAL!!! as your screen name applies . . . I’d think you’d know such examples from your own RC edifice UNRUBBERIZED HISTORIES.
Oh, that’s right, there are no such. LOL.
Welllll, I’m off to Sunday dinner and have other priorities. I have not the slightest interest in DOGPILE.COM -ing such key words as would be neede.
I guess you’ll have to oblige yourself or hope some other scholars will rise to the occasion.
It would be cool if all the Christians on this forum would recognize their common causes as much as their divisions. I actually have no problem with either.
No, not fallen. It is where you dwell, and I have come to visit you.
It's a strange place, really.
Is the above the NEW CHURCH you formed when you did like your last church?
What was that average time a evangelical and/or pentecostal spends in one congregation?
Was it THREE YEARS without moving or forming anew SPLINTER?
I will stick with our 2000+ years of tradition you can stick with your what? three years??
Lurking’
Is the above the NEW CHURCH you formed when you did like your last church?
What was that average time a evangelical and/or pentecostal spends in one congregation?
Was it THREE YEARS without moving or forming anew SPLINTER?
I will stick with our 2000+ years of tradition you can stick with your what? three years??
Lurking’
AGAINST GOD!
Corrupt RELIGIOUS, blasphemy encouraging, idolatry encouraging EDIFI are an entirely different matter.
‘Rebellion’ against satan and all his works is encouraged.
Then you missed the point. Jesus specifically did NOT say to Rebel Against the Pharisees who sit in Moses seat. YOU on the other hand appear to say otherwise. You talk ABOUT following Christ, but submission to authority is part of His teaching. A HUGE part that Protestants of ALL stripes would like to ignore.
Gee, I thought you guys respected the authority of Scripture. My bad.
Cut and run, baby.
You want an as you call it “UNRUBBERIZED HISTORIES” - have the guts to read what many converts to Catholicism call - seminal reading.
As I put the challenge to Manfred the Wonder - read Eusibius’ History. It was written in the late third or early fourth century well before rubber came into common use.
But you will never do it. You will expose yourself to what has become garlic to the vampires.
Now I’m sure you will say it’s been rubberized - 1600 years ago. Fine.
But you can hardly criticize apostolic succession unless you have read his definitive - written over 1000 years before Luther.
But as I said you won’t do it - you may get Catholic Cooties.
Lurking’
HAH! That’s cute!
ROFLMDO
(D is for donkey.)
Never’s a long time.
It’s not a raging priority. If convenient sometime, I might.
But he’s not the only valid source regarding such things—IF he is that, at all.
Given your pontifications, I’d gather he’s either wholesale sold out to the RC edifice or been cleansed and vetted.
The authority of God’s Word; His Spirit . . .
and
even a 4 year old child IF that’s who God is instructing me through at the time . . .
are quite sufficient.
Perhaps it’s the hyper rebellious who feel such a fierce need of layers upon layers of magicsterical political power mongers to help keep their rebelliousness in line???
Of course we accept the authority of UNRUBBERIZED SCRIPTURE.
LOL.
Cut and run???
Some of us have a life beyond FR.
Some of us even step away from the computer long enough to eat.
But far be it from me to jangle your sensibilities and fantasies . . . except whenever I get around to it! LOL.
Cute.
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