Posted on 04/12/2008 1:32:11 AM PDT by Gamecock
(Reuters) - Once solidly Irish, Italian and Polish, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the country, has become increasingly Hispanic in recent years.
Like other mainline denominations it is also losing members to competing faiths such as evangelical Protestant churches.
Following are some facts and figures about the U.S. Catholic population, which will greet Pope Benedict when he visits the United States from April 15 to 20.
- According to a recent nationwide survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 23.9 percent of the adult U.S. population identifies itself as Catholic. This tallies with estimates by the U.S. Catholic Church itself.
- Since the early 1970s the percentage of the population counting itself as Catholic has remained stable at around 25 percent. But according to Pew, no other major faith has experienced greater net losses with 31.4 percent of U.S. adults saying they were raised Catholic and about one in 10 describing themselves as former Catholics.
- In the face of these losses the Church has maintained its share of the U.S. population by winning its own converts but mostly through immigration, especially from Latin America. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops says that about 39 percent of U.S. Catholics are Hispanic.
- The USCCB also says that since 1960, 71 percent of U.S. Catholic population growth has been Hispanic and that by the second decade of the 21st century, more than 50 percent of U.S. Catholics will likely be Hispanic.
- The USCCB estimates that there are 2.3 million African American Catholics. There is also a growing population of Vietnamese Catholics in areas like north Texas.
- The U.S. Northeast remains one of the centers of American Catholicism, with 29 percent of all adults there belonging to the faith.
- One indicator of the resiliency of Catholicism in any country is the Mass attendance rate among the flock. According to a 2007 survey by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, about one fifth of U.S. Catholics attend Mass at least once a week while 11 percent go almost every week.
Has a long track record of suspect methodology.
Consider the messenger, Al Reuters.
and his willing comrade Gamecock.
One big fallacy is that the Catholic church is Irish, Italian and Polish. In the mid 19th century millions of Germans came to America from the Rheinland, Westphalia, Baden, and Bavaria - and they were devout Catholics. Also a nice contingent of folks from Belgium and Luxembourg, France, and the Austrian empire. This is expecially true in the Midwest. The American Catholic Churhc is a lot more diverse than this article says. It’s funny how this sort of information is written and only focuses on the eastern seaboard.
**- Since the early 1970s the percentage of the population counting itself as Catholic has remained stable at around 25 percent. But according to Pew, no other major faith has experienced greater net losses with 31.4 percent of U.S. adults saying they were raised Catholic and about one in 10 describing themselves as former Catholics. **
These are the ones we are trying to reach through evangelization. Yes, there are many converts from other religions, but it is so rewarding when these former Catholics come home.
We have eight in a class right now entitled, “Catholics Can Come Home Again.”
There are over a million Filipino in the U.S. as well, and the sheer majority of them are Catholic.
Oops, I underestimated. I just read there’s 4 million Americans of Filipino ancestry currently (I’m one of them — I’m half.)
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