It is an inflated number if people reading thinks that the number listed is the number of people who identify themselves as Catholic, and there’s nothing in the text to make them think otherwise. If it wants to say there are X people who have been baptized as Catholic and includes people who who would shout from the mountaintops that they are not Catholic, they should explicitly say so. Otherwise it’s deception by omission.
Would you agree that we generally assume the weight of an organization is often proportional to its overall membership. A political party with 20 million members carries more weight than one with under a million. A threatened strike by a large union can have far more impact than a smaller one. By inflating numbers it inflates its perceived standing in the community.
It’s not a matter of belief or disbelief, but of being led (purposely?) to an erroneous conclusion. It only takes a few extra words to make clear to any reader that the number is specifically the number of people baptized as Catholics irrespective of their actual faith. To make people think an untruth is bearing false witness.
But they are Catholic, so it isn’t untrue. Anyone reporting on it can ask how the numbers are derived. It’s so easy I just stumbled upon it right here.
There are two types of people being described by the term Catholic here:
Why would anyone even ask how the Catholic Church derives its membership numbers unless they knew beforehand that there was something odd about how it does so? Name another organization that calculates their membership in the same way. Again, just a few words to make it clear to those not familiar with this is not much to ask at all, and yet practically every article I see about Catholic Church membership seems unwilling to make the tiniest of effort not to deceive (intentionally or otherwise).
What weight? The majority of the world is not and never has been Catholic and doesn’t much care, for example, about Church teaching. The fact that the church claims.x.million as.oposed.to y million members won’t change their minds .Tis_Bearself:
Would you agree that we generally assume the weight of an organization is often proportional to its overall membership. A political party with 20 million members carries more weight than one with under a million. A threatened strike by a large union can have far more impact than a smaller one. By inflating numbers it inflates its perceived standing in the community.
Plus there is another impact to consider: Those individuals who are credited as being Catholic but are not in line with it would strongly prefer not to contribute (mistakenly) to that final total. You may dispute that, but back when it was revealed that the LDS were performing baptisms for the dead there were some who not pleased, including some Catholics.
It’s not a matter of belief or disbelief, but of being led (purposely?) to an erroneous conclusion. It only takes a few extra words to make clear to any reader that the number is specifically the number of people baptized as Catholics irrespective of their actual faith. To make people think an untruth is bearing false witness.
Thank you. That’s very kind. God willing, I shall pray for you also.I’m sorry for the pain that has rendered you, Niblo. My heart goes out to you in your anguish. I will pray for you, hoping that you’ll find resolution and peace, and I believe that you will, if you live long enough. May God’s blessings bring you solace, even if, for now, you’re unbelieving.
Who’s “we”? Politicians? I doubt anyone running for office is going to look at the worldwide statistical number. He will look at the diocesan numbers for the state he is running in. It doesn’t matter if there are a million Catholics in the states next door if his own state only has 5000 of them.
Agree 1000 percent. I’ve never in my life heard anybody say, “Y’know honey, there’s umpty million Catholics in the world. With those kind of numbers, maybe they’re on to something and we should join.”
Seems kind of petty reason to avoid something like 0.8-3% tax on income. Plenty of room there to supplement with more direct gifts of time, treasure and talent. People not associated with any church also have option to allocate their tax to other charity or government programs.
It comes into play mainly when you want to get married or buried.Phemie:
I’ve been to mass & communion in Germany, no one ever asked if I had a clean (Baptismal) record.
I am on staff at a large parish in the US. We would not know if someone just stopped showing up. Our accounting person may or may not notice you stopped putting an envelope in the collection basket. At the parish level, you can usually “unregister”. This will take you out of that parish. At least here, parishes are “charged” by the diocese for each registered family. When it is time for the diocesan support appeal, each parish is given a goal or amount due based on the number of registered families. Parishes (at least ours) like to keep this number up to date.