The same is what the left hopes for in the South.
Posted on 05/09/2013 7:45:12 AM PDT by marshmallow
Dixie Catholics credit the strong Southern sense of community, and dialogue with faithful Protestants, with helping to power the Church’s growth there.
LINDEN, Va. — In the waves of turbulence that rippled throughout the Catholic Church in the 1970s, the nuns of St. Dominic’s Monastery found themselves forced to leave their longtime home in Wisconsin in search of a new one.
The nuns moved to a temporary residence in Washington, D.C., while looking for a permanent setting conducive to the cloistered, contemplative life they sought to lead. It would be more than two decades before they found one. When they did, it was what may seem a most unlikely place: the rural northeast of Virginia, considered one of the Protestant Bible Belt states of the South.
The story of St. Dominic’s Monastery’s southern move may be the story of U.S. Catholicism. New data shows that some of the fastest growing dioceses in the country are deep in the U.S. South.
The third fastest developing diocese is Atlanta, which saw the number of registered parishioners explode from nearly 322,000 in 2002 to one million in 2012 — an increase of more than twofold, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Atlanta also has the largest Eucharistic Congress in the country, with an annual attendance of about 30,000, according to an archdiocesan official.
Atlanta is not alone. Charleston has seen a 50% increase in parishioners over the last decade. Charlotte grew by a third, as did Little Rock. The Diocese of Knoxville, established just 25 years ago, is now the 25th fastest growing in the nation — and would rank near the top if those official figures counted as many as 60,000 unregistered Hispanic congregants, according to a diocesan official.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Well this one is.......... :-)
What's your position on artificial contraception, mister "pro-life conservative"?
We're waiting.......
I was just looking at Catholic parishes in TX, north of Dallas (Dear hubby has a slight chance of being transferred). I would say, after looking at half a dozen, that half are more on the traditional side, featuring adoration, Knights of Columbus, traditionally inspired architecture, even if the building is new. The other half look like new parishes in my home state, California.
I would say, from that little study, half the Catholics who move there or are home grown in the current population boom will reinforce the God/family/patriotism/hard work vibe of the area, and the other half may drift a bit left.
I think that’s enough growth in “right” thinking people to keep Texas being Texas.
Isn’t anyone here concerned by the fact that this article points out that conservatism/pro-life will be losing the South to the pro-abortion left?
True!
We must have read a different article. I didn't see that.
Isn't anybody here concerned that so-called "conservative Americans" think all that's necessary to be pro-life is to be anti-abortion, all the while using artificial birth control to block conception and stifle human life before it begins?
You need to work harder at reconciling your agenda with the facts. To make a statement that in increase in Catholic Church attendance is rejoiced by the left is out of touch with reality.
LOL, don’t just make up fake statements for me.
We all know that Catholic immigration into the South will result in moving the South left. To pro-life conservatives, that result is not good.
The article is about the growth of Catholics in the South, we all know that will result in greater, pro-abortion democratic party strength.
That is a bad thing, not a good thing.
Most forms of birth control are actually abortifacients. The Pill and IUDs are examples. I agree that the braying ‘prof-life anti-abortion) crowd are largely hypocritical.
No we don't "all know that".
Countries which have resisted the trend to legalized abortion have traditionally been those which have a significant Catholic heritage, or alternatively, are Islamic. An interesting and ironic factoid is that the Vatican's major allies in its long and often lonely battle with the UN to stop abortion being enshrined as a universal "human right", have been Islamic nations.
Sadly, it's Protestant anglophone nations like the USA and the UK which are in the vanguard of exporting abortion to all parts of the world.
Don't presume to tell me what I or "all" know. What I know is that it was the majority ultra liberal Protestant and the unchurched vote that gave us two terms of Barak Obama. The continued attempt to shift the blame to wayward Catholics in an effort to indict all of Catholicism is a one trick pony that has come up lame. Me thinks thou doth protest too much.
What effect do you two think that Catholic immigration taking over the South will have on the southern vote, and the pro-abortion democratic party becoming totally unbeatable in national elections?
Your honest opinion.
Wake up. The ONLY conservative on a major party national ticket in the last election was a Catholic. Your Republican party hasn't nominated a real conservative for President since 1984. "WHAT WE ALL KNOW" is that neither major party has any real tolerance for authentic conservatism. No amount of idolatrous worship of the GOP will change that; neither will any amount of stereotyping of Catholics.
You seem desperate to convince FReepers that Catholics aren't real conservatives. If you think "Republican" and "conservative" are the same thing, neither are you. As far as pro-life is concerned, you ought to learn some history. Google "NSSM 200"to start.
None of that had anything to do with the fact that Catholics vote majority for the pro-abortion democrats, nor what that means if Catholics manage to move the South into the radical left column of the pro-abortion Obama party by increasing their numbers there.
All of my opinions re honest.
I have no concern about the consequences of anyone who votes Church teaching. That does not mean, however, that such Catholics will adopt a completely 2012 GOP platform view on all issues, though. If the GOP wants Catholic voters and get more of them to vote it will have to represent a more Catholic platform.
According to the article, the South is not being "taken over", like the yellow peril coming from the east. Catholicism is growing. That will lead to a "take over", only if the currently huge Protestant majority a) stops having kids, b) leaves or c) converts. And immigration is not the primary cause.
This is what the article says;
The Southeast does not have a monopoly on exponential growth. Among the top 25 high-growth dioceses, nearly half are in the U.S. Southwest, stretching from Fresno, California, the second-highest ranking diocese, to Laredo, Texas, the first. But there, Hispanic immigration is behind most of the growth, according to Mark Gray, a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
In the Southeast, however, something different is happening. In a region where churches sit on seemingly every street corner and billboards belt out Bible verses and calls for repentance, local Catholics say they have found fertile ground for the renewal of the Church.
“Our Protestant brothers and sisters have done us a great favor. Talking about faith here in the South is like eating, breathing, and sleeping,” said Randy Hain, a managing partner at Bell Oaks Executive Search in Atlanta and co-founder of The Integrated Catholic Life, an online magazine. “There’s an openness about faith here which makes it easier to be open about your faith if you’re Catholic.”
Southern Catholics will be Catholic. Surprise. They will live their faith and vote accordingly.
Since the Democrat party is the party that Catholics support and vote for, then they must represent the more catholic platform.
The same is what the left hopes for in the South.
“What effect do you two think that Catholic immigration taking over the South will have on the southern vote, and the pro-abortion democratic party becoming totally unbeatable in national elections?”
The last Republican nominee was both pro-abortion and pro-gay marrage. Smearing Catholics with this smacks of false witness. I guess I’ll be the one to break it to you, the Catholic Church is pro-life. I am more concerned with Protestants and their pro-life hypocrisy; claiming to be pro-life while smothering children in the womb with pills and condoms.
Now let me ask a question. How do think the Protestant/evangelical genocide of babies over the last 50+ years via pills and condoms has affected the Southern vote?
“and would rank near the top if those official figures counted as many as 60,000 unregistered Hispanic congregants, according to a diocesan official.”
Maybe all those Catholics are illegals from Mexico. Even their criminals are Catholic. They even have Patron Saints of crime.
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