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Boston's Catholic parishes see decline in membership, with some alienated by beliefs
Cbsnews.com ^ | 02/15/2024 | Laura Haefeli

Posted on 02/15/2024 7:22:36 AM PST by massmike

Boston's Catholic parishes are seeing a significant decline in membership, an alarming trend in one of the most Catholic cities in America.

For centuries, Catholic churches have been the beating heart of Boston. Places to find quiet and form community. Now, according to a new poll from the PEW Research Center, only 30% of Boston adults identify as Catholic. That's down 20% since 2000 across the United States, according to the Catholic News Agency.

"[In Boston}, maybe 40%, due to various things, particularly the sex abuse scandal, COVID hit, anger at statements from the Vatican," said professor Francis Xavier Clooney, a Jesuit priest in Boston and a professor of divinity and comparative theology at Harvard.

Those statements could ostracize those who called the Catholic church home. According to the CDC, nearly 20% of women experience fertility issues. And in Boston, more than 8% of adults identify as LGBTQ+.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: boston

1 posted on 02/15/2024 7:22:36 AM PST by massmike
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To: massmike

Boston is changing from Irish Catholic to “diverse”, just like all major cities.

20 years ago Copley Plaza and the Pru would be wonderfully decorated for Christmas. Now, you can barely tell it’s Christmas season, almost no decorations.


2 posted on 02/15/2024 7:26:10 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: massmike

What is the significance of talking about women with fertility issues? How does that subject relate to people identifying as Catholic?


3 posted on 02/15/2024 7:26:27 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: massmike

I can’t speak for Boston, but in Philadelphia, a lot of folks were disappointed when The Church abandoned Catholicism.


4 posted on 02/15/2024 7:27:38 AM PST by End Times Sentinel (In the conflict between the stone and the stream, the stream will always prevail.)
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To: massmike

Catholics are moving south.


5 posted on 02/15/2024 7:33:50 AM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The article seems to focus on people who wish the Church would become more accepting of modern ways.


6 posted on 02/15/2024 7:35:21 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: massmike

Go woke (go left), lose members?


7 posted on 02/15/2024 7:39:21 AM PST by Maine Mariner
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To: 1Old Pro

Texas needs to send more Catholic illegals to Boston. LOL


8 posted on 02/15/2024 8:05:27 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Tell It Right
Texas needs to send more Catholic illegals to Boston. LOL

Not many Irish coming across the border illegally

9 posted on 02/15/2024 8:06:18 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: Maine Mariner

Indeed, the Catholic church has maintained its reverence for tradition for a very long time. But recently, they have made so many changes that reverse long-standing beliefs that their appeals for members to stay in the church ring rather hollow.


10 posted on 02/15/2024 8:07:09 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt ( )
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To: 1Old Pro

Maybe not Irish coming across the border illegally, but Bush told us that the Hispanic illegals are good Catholics with good conservative Catholic values or some such. By that logic, wouldn’t they fill up the dying Catholic churches in Boston?


11 posted on 02/15/2024 8:09:00 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Maine Mariner

“Go woke (go left), lose members?”
__________________________
Not proud of it, but this is me.
The marxist Pope has discouraged me to the point of being a C & E Catholic.
My faith in Christ as my savior has never been stronger but I cannot follow the church with what this apostate Pope is doing!
Never thought I’d see the day w the likes of this so-called Pope!


12 posted on 02/15/2024 8:10:01 AM PST by bantam
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To: Tell It Right

They are in small towns in Indiana. In my hometown they have been doing Midnight Mass in Spanish for at least 15 years. Used to be predominantly German Catholic. It’s now overwhelmingly Hispanic Catholic.


13 posted on 02/15/2024 8:19:38 AM PST by redangus ( )
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To: End Times Sentinel

I’d consider that good news.


14 posted on 02/15/2024 8:39:23 AM PST by roving (Deplorable Listless Vessel Trumpist With Trumpitis and a Rainbow Bully)
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To: redangus

I think it’s time we laity all agree that the Vatican councils were an utter disaster. Everyone American Catholic is leaving or dying out. My parish has two English masses and two Spanish masses. Were we still using TLM, we would worship together. Instead we have a divided congregation and people. Now we can bless trannies and gays, except at least the Spanish congregation don’t play that


15 posted on 02/15/2024 12:16:05 PM PST by cyberstoic
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To: cyberstoic
BINGO . You nailed it . The TLM kept the faithfull together no matter where you were.We all had the same Mass now we are divided into separate entities according to language.
16 posted on 02/15/2024 2:02:47 PM PST by ABN 505 (Right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. ~Archbishop Fulton John)
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