Does the Church keep track of Conversions?

[Lucky7]

I was wondering whether the Church has been keeping records of conversions from the various religions over time. I figure, if it does, it probably doesn’t go back too far, but I was wondering what might be out there.

Does anyone know?

 

[otjm]

I think the answer may be “yes” and “no”. I would suspect that the matters are contained in the records of the parish in which someone resides when they become a member of the Church; but I do not know if that information is sent broken out to the diocesan offices; that is, baptized having belonged to a group that the Church does not recognize as properly baptizing (e.g. LDS, Seventh Day Adventist), baptized having never been baptized, and those who were candidates (baptized, e.g. in the Methodists).

and I am not even sure that any official records are kept by the parish other than the fact that a person either made a profession of faith, or was baptized.

 

[HoosMommie]

At our parish there is an information sheet for each person converting, signed by the convert and gathered after confirmation, with baptismal information that includes the protestant tradition in which it was done. I think it’s mostly clerical info for the parish and isn’t compiled in a data set.

 

[Marie5890]

I think the answer may be “yes” and “no”. I would suspect that the matters are contained in the records of the parish in which someone resides when they become a member of the Church; but I do not know if that information is sent broken out to the diocesan offices; that is, baptized having belonged to a group that the Church does not recognize as properly baptizing (e.g. LDS, Seventh Day Adventist), baptized having never been baptized, and those who were candidates (baptized, e.g. in the Methodists).

and I am not even sure that any official records are kept by the parish other than the fact that a person either made a profession of faith, or was baptized.

I agree with this. This kind of information most likely be found at the parish level, not so much diocese and certianly not Rome.

 

[Oneofthewomen]

Sacramental records are kept where the baptism (or RCIA/RCIC)
of the person occured. The information they usually include is the baptized persons name, parents names, sponsors names, and the date.

In my diocese, these records are kept by hand, in giant ledger books, specifically designed for this purpose. To the best of my knowledge, the only time one might find a reference to what denomination a convert came from would be the notation of a valid baptism.

ETA: The parish I work for has been merged from 3 worship sites into one. They have all of the ledgers from all of the parishes, some from as far back as the late 1880’s. They are kept in a locked, fire-proof safe room.

 

[Lucky7]

So it sounds to me that the Church as a whole never really knows how many converts there have been let alone from what denomination or religion. I would think that would be good information to have with respect to evangelization efforts, etc. Part of me (probably the practical side of me) still thinks there’s got to be something reported to Rome.

 

[Marie5890]

So it sounds to me that the Church as a whole never really knows how many converts there have been let alone from what denomination or religion. I would think that would be good information to have with respect to evangelization efforts, etc. Part of me (probably the practical side of me) still thinks there’s got to be something reported to Rome.

I would think maybe just the numbers, but no real details.?

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I know my diocese publishes total numbers for the year - x baptisms, x confirmations, etc. I think most/all diocese do track that. It helps the bishop decide how to distribute resources if nothing else. I believe there are total worldwide numbers that come out after Easter, but they don’t track conversions per say - certainly not from individual denominations.

There may be infant v. adult baptisms or child vs adult confirmation numbers, but that doesn’t necessarily speak to conversion. I was not confirmed until I was an adult, butI am a cradle Catholic.

My diocese publishes this number (I believe for 2012)

Baptisms and Professions of Faith: 8,923

 

[otjm]

So it sounds to me that the Church as a whole never really knows how many converts there have been let alone from what denomination or religion. I would think that would be good information to have with respect to evangelization efforts, etc. Part of me (probably the practical side of me) still thinks there’s got to be something reported to Rome.

Knowing whether someone came from a Baptist church or an LDS stake is not going to be particularly helpful in determining evangelization efforts if for no other reason than that it does not tell what caused that individual to seek information about the Catholic Church.

The person may have been a spouse; they may have heard programs on Catholic radio/television; they may have come across a book; it might have been a neighbor or co-worker; the sources of people entering the Church are numerous.

Given that there are a number of religious orders devoted to evangelization, and given that evangelization has been important in the last two papacies, most likely will be a focus of this one, and is something the bishops are focusing on, I suspect there may be a good bit of information available of which the people in the pew have no knowledge. And that is no surprise; there is a lot going on in the Church that the average person in the pew misses. It is not a matter that the Church hides it; it just has little or no relevance to the pew warmers (and I don’t mean that to be unkind).

Your questions are good; it is just that this occurs at a level where the average person has no contact.

 

[1ke]

Yes we report up to the diocese on sacramental records-- number of baptisms, confirmations, receptions into full communion.

We do not collect or report information on where the individuals came from, religious denomination-wise.

 

[Santi2]

I was wondering whether the Church has been keeping records of conversions from the various religions over time. I figure, if it does, it probably doesn’t go back too far, but I was wondering what might be out there.

Does anyone know?

Our Parish keeps a Register of Reception which dates back to 1907. All documents leading to that process is sent to the Dicoesan Chancery.

 

[McCall1981]

Well, speaking from personal experience I know that when I finished RCIA, there was a distinction made between those brought into the Church who had not been baptized at all vs those who had been baptized in a different Christian church vs those who had been baptized Catholic but not confirmed.

From that you could potentially keep track of conversions, but I don’t think they did anything with that info other than note it down in the RCIA book at the parish.

If you’re thinking more large scale, I forget the name of it, but there is a yearly report that the Church does on numbers of Catholics in different areas, numbers of vocations and Priests etc verses overall population growth. It’s pretty detailed so I think you could get a ballpark amount of conversions by comparing numbers of Catholics against general population growth.

 

[1ke]

From that you could potentially keep track of conversions, but I don’t think they did anything with that info other than note it down in the RCIA book at the parish.

All of this information is recorded in the Sacramental Register. Yearly, the number of each type of sacrament (plus recpetion into full communion and decrees of nullity) are reported to the diocese.

 

[McCall1981]

All of this information is recorded in the Sacramental Register. Yearly, the number of each type of sacrament (plus recpetion into full communion and decrees of nullity) are reported to the diocese.

Good to know, thanks