[BillyBoy]

Based on your posts, it sounds to me that A) You obviously don't like Catholics, and B) You happened live in one of the 10 or so states where Catholics REALLY are a "paltry minority" of a population, and are projecting your opinions on the other 40 states where Catholics have more churches than any other religion. Unfortunately for you, "American culture" means all of this country, not just your state. Over here in America's heartland, any Hispanic who becomes Protestant is going to have a lot harder time finding a church, since Catholic parishes are far more prominent.

Religious preference by state, 2001. Catholicism is also largest denomination in Alaska and Hawaii (not pictured), and the largest plurality religious in the gray states where No Religion dominates.

Yes, a majority of Catholics did vote for our protestant president (whose protestant church, as you can tell from the new reports, is about as far away as "mainstream" Christianity in America as you can get). Of course you neglect to mention that a majority of Catholics ALSO voted for George W. Bush. You also notice the key point in the Catholic vote that pertains to this article -- Obama ONLY won the "Catholic vote" because of Hispanic CINOs (you know, the ethnic group that this article mentions is becoming protestant far more often now). Take away "hispanic Catholics", and the remaining Catholics voted AGAINST Obama. So if those liberal "hispanic Catholics" want no more part of our church, so be it. If you protestants want our pro-abortion, pro-socialist, pro-Obama Hispanics, you're welcome to them.

[married21]

I think the growth in Hispanic Protestants is due to evangelical outreach to them. I remember learning awhile back about Cardinal Mahoney when he was a new priest. He learned in the Stockton, CA area that migrant workers did not attend the local Catholic church because they felt unwelcomed by the parishioners who were permanent residents. But the Jehoval Witnesses came right out to the fields to preach to them. So, the pastor that Mahoney was working for started heading out to the fields himself. The migrants said they considered themselves Catholic, but would settle for the JWs when that’s the only people who showed up. I think there are a lot of churches who want those people, and go out and get them. I am grateful that Catholics do not seem to do the heavy-handed recruiting that I have seen some Protestants do, but on the other hand I think Catholics are too reticent to spread the Good News. I think pastors are mainly concerned with serving the people they’ve already got, and lay people don’t want to stick their neck out in that way. Anyway, at this rate, maybe the priest shortage isn’t going to be a problem, because the congregations will be getting smaller. :(

[ConservativeMind]

Buddy, Protestants make up 51% of the US population.

Catholics are 24% of the US population.

So, the “universal church” is the minority of those professing faith in Christ.

[ConservativeMind]

So basically, the more liberal the state, the more Catholics there are.

That speaks volumes.