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 ...
Because the Roman Catholic Church encourages them. Another factor is Northerners moving South for the warmer weather and more favorable tax environment.
Charleston -- has seen a 50% increase in parishioners over the last decade.
Useless piece of data. It could be from one to two, or 500,000 to 1,000,000.
You mean like former governor Ahnult? A "pro-life Republican"? Republican and "pro-life" are not synonymous. Less so each day. Thanks for making my point.
To return to the point; Catholicism in the South. Southern California, Arizona and West Texas are not "the South". And the increase in Catholicism is not primarily due to immigration. Catholics are coming here from the north, Catholics are having bigger families and people are converting.
As a result, new Catholics in this part of the country will be mainly practicing Catholics who embrace Catholic teaching and who will not support an anti-life culture.
Of course, all of your whining would be moot if Americans started having kids. See the Islamic invasion of Europe. You contracept at your peril.
If you want an honest opinion I want an honest premise. I know we have been over this ad naseum, but only half of self identified Catholics actually vote and of those slightly more than half vote Democrat. The GOP will not have any more success with those who have abandoned Catholic teachings than the Church has, but there are a vast number who cannot stomach voting for either party. Try to win those.
If you are the face of the GOP it gives me another reason to not vote GOP. Continually telling us how screwed up we all are because of the actions of a few is as honest as me telling you that all Republicans are screwed up because of the record of Olympia Snow and Chris Christie.
And while you are at it why don't you harp on the vast number of evangelicals and fringe protestants who prowl these threads who refused to vote for Romney because he was a Mormon.
That ignores the relevant facts of the reality of politics.
Catholics are pro-abortion democrat voters, the immigration of more of them into a conservative region or state only serves the pro-abortion democrats.
The majority of Protestants vote against the democrats, the majority of Catholics vote for them.
The South being diluted with mass Catholic immigration will only lead to more power for the pro-abortion left, that is the true witness.
Believing that people who vote for the pro-abortion/gay marriage platform are more holy and good and true to Christianity than those who vote against it, is freakishly bizarre.
See post 38, the fact that the members of the Catholic denomination vote as a majority for democrats is a real problem, much less of a problem than the 80% of the Evangelicals who voted against Obama.
An increase in Evangelical numbers means the country moves right, an increase in the number of Catholic voters, means the country moves left, so ‘prowling’ Evangelicals are hardly the problem.
The vote man, the vote determines whether the left or right prevails, when we know that bad news is being reported, as in this article, then it saddens us, it is not a time to rejoice in how wonderful it is that the left is gaining voters.
I wonder if Catholic radio has anything to do with this.
Schwarzenegger says gay marriages should resume in California; Obama still opposes them.
Got that?
The great "pro-life" GOP was out in front of even Obama on this one in California. Too funny.
Fess up. You're a Democrat aren't you?
Gosh the misinformation is astounding.
This idea that a person who thinks the GOP is not sufficiently conservative and pro-life must always vote democrat and for Clinton and Obama and Al Gore, doesn’t make sense, Obama is the most pro-abortion president in history, the democrat party is officially pro-abortion and pro-homosexual etc.
The idea that the Southwest and California Catholic growth is not pro-abortion voting democrats, is absurd also.
Catholic growth is what killed California and is what the left counts on to kill America.
It is the voting that determines who wins and with what agenda.
Looks like even Obama had to play catch up to the "pro-life" GOP on the subject of gay marriage in California, eh? Way to go!!
Still think the GOP will save civilization?
So in your mind, Catholics are correct in voting FOR the democrat party and AGAINST the GOP?
This isn’t about weak catholic turn out, or the Roman Catholic ex-governor of California, or Catholics voting third party, or Catholics finding the GOP not pure enough.
This is none of that, because the real problem is Catholics eagerly voting democrat, they didn’t choose Clinton and Clinton, and Al Gore, and Obama and Obama, because the GOP was LESS pro-life and conservative than those democrats.
I'm pointing out that the Republicans are taking us down the same road to destruction. In some places (like California) they appear to be out in front.
You're telling us that they're going to save America. I say they they won't.
Simple.
As an engineering professional I fully understand the GIGO (Garbage In = Garbage Out) principle of statistics. When you forcibly equate the subset of self-described Catholics to practicing Catholics and further compound the error of equating Self Described Catholics who vote to all Catholics you end up with garbage squared. Doing that might fit your narritive, but is it no way represents fact.
What appears clear to me, is your support for the Catholics voting democrat, it seems to be your determined point, that it is the right thing to do in the face of the GOP not being conservative enough, in election after election, after election, in state after state, after state.
As far as the GOP, being on freerepublic you might have noticed all the dissatisfaction with the GOP here from conservatives? But that hasn’t led them to vote DEMOCRAT, dissatisfaction with the GOP did not lead pro-lifers to vote FOR Clinton, and Clinton, and Al Gore, and Obama, and Obama.
I have never said the GOP is “going to save America”, yet you keep posting stuff like that, also calling me a democrat voter, which makes for some weird posting, I have never belonged to either party but that still doesn’t mean that I prefer the Catholics voting for the PURE left-wing, anti-God, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual party.
Defending the democrat vote and their gaining ground in America and seeming to support them in California and as better for Catholics, and hoping that the South gets many more democrats, is totally whack for supposed pro-life conservatives.
Voting democrat is a bad thing, not a good thing to be defended.
Overall, Romney carried White Catholics, as did Bush and McCain. Source
Romney's vote among White Catholics in the Northeast was only 2 percentage points less than his vote among White Protestants in that part of the country. Source
Race and geography and degree of religiosity are more important than religious denomination in determining voting patterns.
Some people here just need somebody to blame (i.e. Catholics), though. One or two have even become famous (at least around here) for that.
So what are they going to do if they're not going to save us?
Prolong the time required for destruction?
Voting democrat is better?
It isn't white American Catholics colonizing America, it is Catholics from more pure, Roman Catholic nations.
Hispanics comprise 71 percent of Catholic population growth since 1960, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Historically, there have been some Democrats, especially down here in the Deep South, who were and maybe still are, more conservative than some west coast and north east Republicans.
I'd vote for a conservative Democrat like Zell Miller over a liberal west coast "conservative" like Schwarzenneger, any day.
This is a church that, at each mass, prays that G-d will accept the eucharist "as You accepted the sacrifice of your servant Abel"--and doesn't believe this sacrifice ever actually happened!!! What kind of religion is that??? "Please accept our sacrifice like you did the fictional one in that story about You?" Isn't that like a woman "swearing by her beard???"
Catholic prayers are full of references to things the Catholic Church no longer believes in. This makes its ritual nothing more than a pantomime. How anyone could take such a church seriously is beyond me.
If "science" has "disproven" that there was an Abel or the history of the world recited at the Xmas Eve mass is all hooey, then remove them from the liturgy. Don't deny the events and then invoke them. That's insane.
“The majority of Protestants vote against the democrats, the majority of Catholics vote for them.
So in your world, committing infanticide via pills and condoms in their personal life is fine as long as Protestants vote “pro-life” in their politics? Sorry, I reject that thinking. As I pointed out, your last Republican candidate was pro-genocide. Better a few good men than universal depravity. You also never answered my question:
How do you think the Protestant genocide of babies via pills and condoms has affected the voting demographics of the South?
Maybe Catholics would not be a growing population in the South if the adherents of the traditional Southern religions weren’t murdering their babies in the womb with pills and condoms.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.