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 ...
The Crystal Cathedral will add to that, it is definitely not a “garage” church.
-— Don’t be eager to dismiss good Christians voting AGAINST abortion and to preserve life, ——
How does chemically induced sterility preserve life?
Catholic teaching is clear regarding abortion and contraception. Protestantism? Not so much.
Why did every Protestant denomination change its position regarding contraception since the Lambeth Conference, less than 100 years ago. Did the Bible change? Or did they?
Interesting the things we see on these threads, Catholic voting for the entire democrat agenda is of no interest or concern, in fact seems very defensible on this thread.
The Christians who vote against that, are to be savaged.
Don’t be eager to dismiss good Christians voting AGAINST abortion and to preserve life, in defense of people voting FOR abortion and the entire radical left, anti-God agenda.
No defense for it, I know. I wouldn’t want to defend contraception it either.
If you want to know what the Church teaches about abortion and contraception, and has taught for over 2000 years, it’s easy to find.
What we need are faithful Catholics, not more Christians groping around in the dark.
That is your defense of the Catholic denomination’s support of the democrat party, democrats want to ban contraception and the Catholic voters are flocking to that and rejecting the republicans and all other parties because they haven’t taken a stand against contraception?
Call me doubtful.
What I already know is that the pro-life/pro-marriage movement and all conservatism is doomed, as long as Catholic voters are immigrating by the millions.
Why people claiming to be pro-life and conservative want MORE democrats is baffling.
For those of you saying this is due to illegal immigration .... perhaps in some areas but not all. I’ve seen my parish grow from about 1,000 families to 5,000+ in just 10 years. No illegal immigrants ... but we do have some legal ones from Africa and Asia. Mostly though we are middle class white folk.
Just Hispanics alone comprise 71 percent of Catholic population growth since 1960, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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