One Of The Most Catholic Neighborhoods Anywhere

[Seamus_L]

I’m going to do some bragging, but not about myself. In my old neighborhood in Chicago, the Back of the Yards, if you can believe this, at one time, in an area less than a mile by a mile (45th to 53rd-Throop St to Seeley St) we had 11 Catholic churches and a convent where mass was said daily, for a total of 12. There was a 13th Catholic church in the Back of the Yards, just outside the parameters I’ve listed. Maybe some city had that beat a few centuries ago, but for the 20th century, I’d like to know if anyone could beat that.

 

[fencersmother]

Ambridge, Pennsylvania, which had a population at its zenith of 20,000 in about 1930, had seven Catholic parishes, most of them associated with an ethnic group. The Irish had St Veronica’s, the Italians had Christ the King, the Polish had St Stanislaus… There was a Byzantine rite church - I can’t remember them all. Now, the population is about 6800 and all the churches have been combined into one parish - Good Samaritan. The churches are still there - the evangelicals bought St Stanislaus’, the town bought one of the churches and it’s not the adult day care center.

 

[rcwitness]

Is this south? Is it Irish? Do they have those cool bagpipe funerals for officers?

Im from Fontana WI, but my grandpa was south Chicago fireman and Catholic. Though I wish he hadpracticed his faith.

Now Im in Brasilia, Brasil which is around 55% Catholic.

We are planning to move to the state Santa Catarina which is 75% Catholic! I look forward to joining a parish there! Possibly in the Capitol, which is an Island containing very traditional Catholic villages!

 

[mactomas]

Assuming you’re not limiting the question to the US… I grew up in West Belfast, Northern Ireland which has about 15 Catholic Churches within a few square miles (although the historical reasons for the concentration aren’t really to be celebrated).

 

[marymary1975]

I live in the south shore in Massachusetts and around Here there is a catholic church on every corner. I have 3 catholic churches around me, two at a very short walkable distance and the other one is less than ten minutes driving counting traffic lights etc. I am not good with miles but i can get to those three churches very quick. There are also two parochial schools within a ten minute drive. If I go beyond ten minutes driving I will find one church one every corner and each church seems to be quite packed on Sundays. I am not sure about the population number but I can tell you catholicism around here is flourishing.

 

[pineapple2]

is anyone from an area where there are VERY few catholics? what’s it like?

 

[CB_Catholic]

Campbell, Ohio, known as the “City of Churches” has a population of 8,235 on 3.71 sq. land miles. There are 28 churches, including 11 Catholic (2 are Byzantine) and 4 Orthodox.

It is a highly ethnic area. In one area of town there s a Fatima Dr., Goretti Dr.,Notre Dame Dr., Lourdes Lane, Rosary Drive, and Maryknoll Dr. all within a small area.

I attended a funeral of a friend there and the hearse driver to led the funeral procession past the deceased’s house on the way to the cemetery. Apparently this is a custom there. It was very moving, and the neighbors who did not attend had an opportunity to say goodbye.

 

[OraLabora]

I suspect Rome has all of you beat, I counted over 40 in an area 500x500 meters on Google Maps. According to Wikipedia there are more than 900 churches in Rome!

Paris too for that matter, would probably easily beat that.

 

[TimothyH]

Its easy to be a Catholic neighborhood in modern times. The neighborhoods of Syrian Antioch, Ephesus and the other cities in Asia Minor, and the neighborhoods in Rome where Christians were pressured into emperor worship and martyred were probably the “Most Catholic” in my opinion.

If you judge “Catholicness” by number of parishoners or number of Churches per square mile then sure, there are others, but if you judge “Catholicness” as faithfunless to God’s word and trust in his promises then it’s hard to beat these.

I’m not really sure what makes a neighborhood more or less Catholic. I’'m sure its more than Churches/Km^2.

-Tim-

 

[rcwitness]

Its easy to be a Catholic neighborhood in modern times. The neighborhoods of Syrian Antioch, Ephesus and the other cities in Asia Minor, and the neighborhoods in Rome where Christians were pressured into emperor worship and martyred were probably the “Most Catholic” in my opinion.

If you judge “Catholicness” by number of parishoners or number of Churches per square mile then sure, there are others, but if you judge “Catholicness” as faithfunless to God’s word and trust in his promises then it’s hard to beat these.

I’m not really sure what makes a neighborhood more or less Catholic. I’'m sure its more than Churches/Km^2.

-Tim-

Well excuuuuuuuuuuse us!!!..

No, your right, of course.

I was actually curious about this Chicago neighborhood, because alot of those South Side areas are pretty bad/unsafe. Chicago, I think, had over 500 murders last year!

Brazil has alot of corruption and when individual Catholics are questioned about their personal beliefs, you will find they run all across the board, accepting things like Vasectomy, Superstition, Fortune Tellers, sex before marriage, ect.

 

[CruceSignati]

In my area (I live near in the country between a town and a city) we have 5 churches within 45 minutes of driving. This used to be 6, but last fall the bishop had to close a dozen parishes around the diocese due to lack of funds and priests, and this was one of them. As for the “Catholicness” of the area, 40% of the people in the city said they were Catholic back in 2001, but most seem to be Catholic in name only. Our catechesis our here sucks pretty badly and a lot of the young people (17-27 or so) are leaving the Church. But of course, lots of Filipino couples are having their children baptised and the church “appears” to be growing, so the parish priest said that the church would have to expand…

 

[TimothyH]

Well excuuuuuuuuuuse us!!!..

No, your right, of course.

I was actually curious about this Chicago neighborhood, because alot of those South Side areas are pretty bad/unsafe. Chicago, I think, had over 500 murders last year!

Brazil has alot of corruption and when individual Catholics are questioned about their personal beliefs, you will find they run all across the board, accepting things like Vasectomy, Superstition, Fortune Tellers, sex before marriage, ect.

I didn’t mean to butt in. I reread the thread and see where it was going. Sorry if I offended.

There was some neighborhood in St. Louis, on a hill someone was telling me, mostly Italian I think. They said everyone there was Catholic. Williamsburg Brooklyn probably comes close.

-Tim-

 

[Tigg]

is anyone from an area where there are VERY few catholics? what’s it like?

Many years ago we lived in the South - the middle of the Bible belt in a small town of fundamentalists. The nearest (and only) Catholic Church was 21 miles away and if you didn’t like that one you had a one-way 70 mile trip to get to Mass to the next closest one. The parish only had 200 registered families and perhaps one half that amount were practicing Catholics who attended Sunday Mass. We found the parish to be very liberal and “Protestantized.” It was a very unpleasant time for us and we moved away as soon as we could. However, a quick search of parishes in some of the other southern states will yield good results and many of them are very traditional.

 

[MarineGuy]

Since it seems like the urban, “ethnic” neighborhoods in Northeastern & Rust Belt cities get are thought of as Catholic but rural areas, especially in the South, thought of as exclusively Protestant…want to call attention to the fact that several counties in and towns such as Bardstown & Lebanon in KENTUCKY of all places are some of the most Catholic areas of the U.S. anywhere (I believe around 50% Catholic, and until the 1980s approaching 80 or 90% Catholic)…A “country”, Southern, not “ethnic”, yet VERY Catholic historically since the late 1700s thanks to English-descent migrants from Maryland. Full of rural, historic Catholic churches and cemeteries, monasteries and convents, and the quintessential “bathtub Madonna” and crucifix dots the landscape. Not surprisingly, in a predominantly Baptist state where most other counties are “dry” (alcohol sales banned), this Catholic enclave in the center of Kentucky is home to many bourbon whiskey distilleries and vast majority of the Bourbon sold & imbibed the world over is produce right here in the “holy land” of Kentucky.

 

[MarineGuy]

ADDENDUM: I want to stress that the aforementioned area is both HISTORICALLY Catholic, and historically American, populated by colonial American Catholic settlers almost from the very beginning…unlike some of the other “Catholic” neighborhoods mentioned which are only Catholic due to later immigration and are really nothing more than ethnic ghettos that happen to be Catholic. (Boston for example is heavily Catholic due to later Irish/Italian immigration but was founded as a bastion of English Puritanism, while New Orleans was historically very Catholic but due to it’s French roots, not American). Jefferson Davis, who later became the president of the Confederacy, was educated by Dominicans at St. Rose Priory in rural Kentucky as a boy and due to their influence, although he never formally converted to the Catholic faith but became a high-church Episocpalian instead, he had a lifelong attachment to Catholicism and wore a brown scapular throughout his life. Also interesting (to me), Louisville, Kentucky area is heavily Catholic mostly due to widespread German Catholic immigration to the city in the 1800s. I forget which neighborhoods were considered the MOST Catholic back in the day but around 1/3 of Louisville/Jefferson County is Southern Baptist, and another 1/3 Roman Catholic…I think this is a pretty unique demographic trend and I suspect that there are no other areas in the U.S. that can boast such high proportions of both Catholics & Baptists.