Best Catholic Area in the US?

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Megan7 said:
I would like to hear about Texas as well.🙂
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There are a number of good Catholic apostolates in Texas. For example CC Watershed in Corpus Christi. I don’t know much about the Diocese of Corpus Christi, so I cannot comment on that. There are other Catholic apostolates which are bearing fruit in Texas as well.

I am currently in the Diocese of Fort Worth, which is OK at best. Most parishes I have been to are your typical parish and certainly not a cut above the norm. There are a few parishes here and there which have made concerted efforts to become something special, but that is the exception to the rule. Bishop Vann made some good strides by all accounts in pushing for basic orthodoxy and minimizing outright liturgical abuse, but there is still a long ways to go. We are currently sans Bishop, so much of the future direction will depend on who the Holy Father selects to fill that spot.

I know little about the Diocese of Dallas or San Antonio, though it seems to be a mixed bag from what I can tell. Again, nothing outside the norm by all accounts.

Houston has some good things going on. From being the seat of the Anglican Ordinariate, to having some solid parishes, to being one of the only places where the FSSP was able to build an entirely new parish from the ground up rather than renovating some Protestant church which is their norm, there seems to be some good things going on. Houston is probably not what most would consider economical, which was part of what the OP had asked about so that should be taken into consideration.

Austin doesn’t seem to have much special going on at the Diocesan level. It certainly does not have the reputation of being some hotbed of orthodoxy and tradition, if that is what you are looking for.

All in all, Texas has some good things happening, but it seems to be in isolated pockets much of the time. Others may have differing opinions or know more about other Diocese than I do, so perhaps they will chime in as well.
 
I will give another recommendation for Wichita, KS. We have one of the highest number of seminarians (was recently in a much larger archdiocese and noticed we had more than the entire archdiocese combined). Our catholic schools are free to tithing faithful. We have very strong pro-life movements in the state. We have a very strong KoC presence.

Someone asked about anti-gay marriage laws on the books. We passed a constitutional ammendment 7-8 years ago defining marriage as man+woman.

The diocese of Pheonix would be pretty great, from my friends down there. Not suprising considering they got their bishop from Wichita after Bishop Olmstead was here for a few years, the Holy Father moved him out there. Our most recent bishop, Bishop Jackels, just got the call for a promotion to Archbishop in Iowa.

I am very politically active and active in the community and it is impossible to be involved in anything without meeting other faithful Catholics. Almost every church has perpetual adoration. You can find mass being said most any time of the day.

All in all, Wichita is a great place to grow in the Catholic faith and it is hard to beat free, Catholic education for your kids.
 
jwinch2 said:
There are a number of good Catholic apostolates in Texas. For example CC Watershed in Corpus Christi. I don’t know much about the Diocese of Corpus Christi, so I cannot comment on that. There are other Catholic apostolates which are bearing fruit in Texas as well.

I am currently in the Diocese of Fort Worth, which is OK at best. Most parishes I have been to are your typical parish and certainly not a cut above the norm. There are a few parishes here and there which have made concerted efforts to become something special, but that is the exception to the rule. Bishop Vann made some good strides by all accounts in pushing for basic orthodoxy and minimizing outright liturgical abuse, but there is still a long ways to go. We are currently sans Bishop, so much of the future direction will depend on who the Holy Father selects to fill that spot.

I know little about the Diocese of Dallas or San Antonio, though it seems to be a mixed bag from what I can tell. Again, nothing outside the norm by all accounts.

Houston has some good things going on. From being the seat of the Anglican Ordinariate, to having some solid parishes, to being one of the only places where the FSSP was able to build an entirely new parish from the ground up rather than renovating some Protestant church which is their norm, there seems to be some good things going on. Houston is probably not what most would consider economical, which was part of what the OP had asked about so that should be taken into consideration.

Austin doesn’t seem to have much special going on at the Diocesan level. It certainly does not have the reputation of being some hotbed of orthodoxy and tradition, if that is what you are looking for.

All in all, Texas has some good things happening, but it seems to be in isolated pockets much of the time. Others may have differing opinions or know more about other Diocese than I do, so perhaps they will chime in as well.
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Thank you Jason, this is very helpful:thumbsup:
God bless you 🙂
 
Megan7 said:
Thank you Jason, this is very helpful:thumbsup:
God bless you 🙂
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You are welcome. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Fort Worth is a very strong parish which has made strong effort towards restoring the sacred in the liturgy, etc. As a result, they have grown dramatically in recent years to the point that they built a huge new parish church, in a traditional style, and are still growing.

As I noted above, the rest of the parishes I have been to are the norm. Little in the way of outright liturgical abuses, but not much in the way of special either. There are several Anglican Use/Ordinariate parishes in Texas, and they have beautiful liturgy, and the one in San Antonio, Our Lady of Atonement, has a very strong school as well.

The University of Dallas has a good Catholic reputation according to the Newman Guide, and you also have the College of Saints John Fisher & Thomas More as well as other Catholic colleges which I know less about.

All in all, there is definitely some good stuff going on, but it is less consistent than the OP of this thread might prefer.

+Pax
 
The Inland Empire! When summer comes everybody is on their knees for the drought to end! That’s piety for you! 😃

Seriously, though, the best Catholic area is where God wants you to be at a particular point in time. For Juan Diego it was Post-Conquest Mexico. For Fr. Serra it was Southern California. For Fulton Sheen, New York.
 
Cojuanco said:
The Inland Empire! When summer comes everybody is on their knees for the drought to end! That’s piety for you! 😃

Seriously, though, the best Catholic area is where God wants you to be at a particular point in time. For Juan Diego it was Post-Conquest Mexico. For Fr. Serra it was Southern California. For Fulton Sheen, New York.
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After visiting the Missions Carmel and San Juan Batista, I tend to agree with Fr. Serra. 😉
 
jwinch2 said:
You are welcome. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Fort Worth is a very strong parish which has made strong effort towards restoring the sacred in the liturgy, etc. As a result, they have grown dramatically in recent years to the point that they built a huge new parish church, in a traditional style, and are still growing.

As I noted above, the rest of the parishes I have been to are the norm. Little in the way of outright liturgical abuses, but not much in the way of special either. There are several Anglican Use/Ordinariate parishes in Texas, and they have beautiful liturgy, and the one in San Antonio, Our Lady of Atonement, has a very strong school as well.

The University of Dallas has a good Catholic reputation according to the Newman Guide, and you also have the College of Saints John Fisher & Thomas More as well as other Catholic colleges which I know less about.

All in all, there is definitely some good stuff going on, but it is less consistent than the OP of this thread might prefer.

+Pax
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Excellent information Jason. And if I am not mistaken you get good value for your dollar
when it comes to home purchases. Its just a shame that its so hot in the summer :o
But, if you can find a good, solid parish, then its worth it:thumbsup:

God Bless you Jason, thanks so much.🙂
 
jwinch2 said:
You are welcome. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Fort Worth is a very strong parish which has made strong effort towards restoring the sacred in the liturgy, etc. As a result, they have grown dramatically in recent years to the point that they built a huge new parish church, in a traditional style, and are still growing.

As I noted above, the rest of the parishes I have been to are the norm. Little in the way of outright liturgical abuses, but not much in the way of special either. There are several Anglican Use/Ordinariate parishes in Texas, and they have beautiful liturgy, and the one in San Antonio, Our Lady of Atonement, has a very strong school as well.

The University of Dallas has a good Catholic reputation according to the Newman Guide, and you also have the College of Saints John Fisher & Thomas More as well as other Catholic colleges which I know less about.

All in all, there is definitely some good stuff going on, but it is less consistent than the OP of this thread might prefer.

+Pax
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Thank you and God bless you.
 
Megan7 said:
Excellent information Jason. And if I am not mistaken you get good value for your dollar
when it comes to home purchases. Its just a shame that its so hot in the summer :o
But, if you can find a good, solid parish, then its worth it:thumbsup:

God Bless you Jason, thanks so much.🙂
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It is incredibly hot here, but Winter is pretty easy most of the time, so its a decent trade off from that standpoint. Cost of living in Texas is pretty good overall. There are some expensive areas, but that exists everywhere.

Peace Megan,
 
To be honest, both Lincoln and Omaha are excellent dioceses. Lincoln is very wonderful and has some of the best priests, while Omaha is a very Catholic city and the archdiocese as a whole is wonderful. Lincoln though keeps catholic school tuition affordable.
 
I’m biased because I’m from there, but New Orleans is a city founded by Catholics and continues to have a strong Catholic community. There are at least two Jesuit schools (Loyola U and Jesuit High School) and numerous other schools run by various orders. This is French and Italian cultural Catholicism, which I’ve found to be a little different from other cultural Catholics, but I always feel and undercurrent of strong Catholic tradition there.

J
 
Bar none. Lafayette,LA
diolaf.org/
Louisiana is 30% Catholic…And the bulk of them are in South Louisiana…Also known as Acadiana.
Awesome place to live & worship.
👍
 
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