Is Catholic membership growing?

[sherilo]

Hello all,

This is sort of a two part question. As far as you can see, are there more people leaving Catholicism or converting to Catholicism? What, if anything, do you see former Protestants contributing to Catholic spirituality? I only ask because it seems to me that more Protestants are converting to Catholicism. It seems as though Christ is gathering His church. What are your thoughts?

Peace to all,
Sheri

 

[FuzzyBunny116]

I think there was a recent survey, and the Church lost some in the 'US last year, but the Church is rising in China and Africa. AFrica was 12% Catholic something like 5 years ago. Its 17% now.

 

[Eden]

Here’s an interesting analysis from the New Oxford review. The number of “Catholics” in the U.S. continues to climb but Mass attendance, numbers joining religious orders, etc. is declining.

“The U.S. Catholic Church statistics presented in this book are truly ominous. Virtually every indicator of Church well-being (priests, ordinations, seminarians, religious orders, high schools, grade schools, sacramental life, Mass attendance, etc.) is in precipitous decline. And of those calling themselves Catholics, fewer and fewer follow Church rules or accept Church doctrine. Yet the total number of Catholics in the U.S. continues to rise! Since the mid-1960s, when all these indicators went into freefall, Church membership has actually risen by 43 percent, and continues to rise at a rate of more than 700,000 Catholics each year. With the Church in collapse by almost every measurable standard, her membership continues to increase!”

Source: newoxfordreview.org/letters.jsp?did=0304-letters

 

[Shadowcry]

The Catholic church is rising in China? could you give me a source to this? I have never heard of this before.

 

[adnauseum]

The number of students who sign up for difficult math classes in college is always about the same, but more and more students are signing up for the courses that insult the intelligence. These latter types of students are those who just want to pay a minimal fee and be guaranteed a diploma.

It does not trouble me that so few people sign up for the substantive math courses, because at least I know the ones who are there are serious, and fully engaged.

The others can take the fluff courses and we’ll just have to see how each of us fares in the end.