Poll: Latin America Catholics steadily leave faith

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WilT

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We as Catholics need to take better care of our own.

So He told them this parable, saying, 4 "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 Luke 15;3-7
news.yahoo.com/poll-latin-america-catholics-steadily-leave-faith-050615912.html
 
Unsurprising considering the aggressive outreach evangelical churches do in Central and South America.
 
Siegehammer said:
Unsurprising considering the aggressive outreach evangelical churches do in Central and South America.
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The unfortunate thing with that is that a family member converts and starts talking bad about the rest of the family. All this does is divide families.

I feel Catholics are trying to do more. I am in theological class here at the university of Dallas. It is to help with groups like rcia, youth groups and evangelization. I do believe we are behind the 8 ball, but we have the truth. The truth will always prevail.
 
I’m sorry to hear this… 84 to 69% is a massive drop for a single generation. To the Latin American archdiocese it must feel something like the original Protestant Reformation.

Religious education mission trips to Latin America is an idea. I’ll be going to St. Lucia (island north of Venezuela) on my first mission trip this spring, but I believe we’ll just be building houses and the like.
 
-]/-]
Gregory_Olson said:
I’m sorry to hear this… 84 to 69% is a massive drop for a single generation. To the Latin American archdiocese it must feel something like the original Protestant Reformation.

Religious education mission trips to Latin America is an idea. I’ll be going to St. Lucia (island north of Venezuela) on my first mission trip this spring, but I believe we’ll just be building houses and the like.
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Good luck, yes it must be hard, I feel bad for our families, because once somebody leaves the faith, that individual normally starts trashing the faith and there’s a barrier in the family.
 
The reason this was reported on was so Y! News and the secular media could use the Protestant conversion issue as a way to emphasize growing secularism in Latin American and that the underlying message is that leftist secularism is somehow “winning” globally.

I very much doubt this was reported on to do the Protestants any favors.

Also, if this study is done over a generation, well, then it isn’t news, and the wave of conversions is leveling off some.

And I think a big reason for such conversions is because of a priest shortage so Catholic/Christian services are in such demand there, which I do not believe the article mentioned. In fact, some places in Latin America may see a priest once a month or so.

So, it’s a challenge for the Church to be sure.
 
Gregory_Olson said:
I’m sorry to hear this… 84 to 69% is a massive drop for a single generation. To the Latin American archdiocese it must feel something like the original Protestant Reformation.

Religious education mission trips to Latin America is an idea. I’ll be going to St. Lucia (island north of Venezuela) on my first mission trip this spring, but I believe we’ll just be building houses and the like.
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Protestants have dumped a lot of resources in Latin America. It’s simply easier for them to go there than say China or the Middle East.

I wonder how they would feel if we openly sent massive numbers of missionaries to their poor members Texas, the Carolinas, Alabama, the UK, Scandinavia and Lutheran Germany.

Mission trips such as the one you are on is a start.
 
SuperLuigi said:
The reason this was reported on was so Y! News and the secular media could use the Protestant conversion issue as a way to emphasize growing secularism in Latin American and that the underlying message is that leftist secularism is somehow “winning” globally.

I very much doubt this was reported on to do the Protestants any favors.

Also, if this study is done over a generation, well, then it isn’t news, and the wave of conversions is leveling off some.

And I think a big reason for such conversions is because of a priest shortage so Catholic/Christian services are in such demand there, which I do not believe the article mentioned. In fact, some places in Latin America may see a priest once a month or so.

So, it’s a challenge for the Church to be sure.
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We need priests yes, but if we could have more deacons in these areas and some sort of missionaries, apologetics it would be great.
 
Gregory_Olson said:
I’m sorry to hear this… 84 to 69% is a massive drop for a single generation.
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Ireland dropped from like 90% to 40%(judging by mass attendance rates from the 70s to now) in about a generation. Other European countries experienced similar drops(although most started off lower and ended up lower).
 
randomusername said:
Ireland dropped from like 90% to 40%(judging by mass attendance rates from the 70s to now) in about a generation. Other European countries experienced similar drops(although most started off lower and ended up lower).
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Islam is filling the void quite nicely.
 
Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, funded by Americans, have been working 24/7 for decades now…these movements are growing like wildfire and Catholicism is diminishing. Americans talk about a priest shortage…well relative to much of Latin America, the US hass a vast abundance of priests. There is a true, striking priest shortage in many of these countries. The state of the liturgy is also often not good, and this leads to a watering down of a strong, unique Catholic identity. My wife is Dominican and every time I fly down to the DR through the US, I see vast groups of Evangelical youth proudly spending their 2 week vacation “winning souls” in this or that Central / South American country. Its the “white man’s burden” all over again and it fills me with a genuine righteous rage. These well meaning, but ultimately self-righteous evangelical youth, think they need to “save” the poor, misguided, Mary worshiping Latinos. I grew up one of them prior to my conversion…
The irony is, I consider a country like the DR to be much more Christian than a country like the US. Which of the two promotes abortion and gay marriage? Not the DR.
 
Siegehammer said:
Unsurprising considering the aggressive outreach evangelical churches do in Central and South America.
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But wouldn’t a committed Catholic instinctively resist that? I mean I resist a wide variety of Protestant approaches without any problem at all, always have done. What’s the difference? Not too flattering a picture of Latin American Catholics…

I think the culprit is more likely secularization and the Protestant vs. Catholic response on the ground. Often the (conservative) Protestants more aggressively step out in opposition to it - so people see them as another option. The Catholic Church kind of just waits to be discovered in all her glory and truth. We talk about evangelizing, we analyze it, we theorize about it, we recognize the need for it, we pray about it…
 
All of as have the responsibility to evangelize and the holy spirit is with us. The idea that it can’t happen if we don’t have enough priests and deacons is part of the problem. If we all sit around waiting for someone else to do it the numbers of Catholics will keep going down. I’m sure there are Catholic lay organizations attempting to evangelize in these parts of the world. Does anyone know any of them? We could support them financially if we could not go and help in person.
 
chero23 said:
-]/-]

Good luck, yes it must be hard, I feel bad for our families, because once somebody leaves the faith, that individual normally starts trashing the faith and there’s a barrier in the family.
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Your posts about families divided and barriers make me wonder if I am in the only family where we have faithful Catholics who never miss a Sunday Mass and who otherwise are faithful, alongside family members who do not practice Catholicism, some who haven’t even set foot in any church in yrs, along with others who have made a Protestant church their faith home, and yet we all seem to love and support each other and generally get along. Oh sure we have our moments like any family. And there may have been some initial uncomfortable feeling among some for instance when a Baprist was entering the family. But it all worked out. But we have rarely divided ourselves with a barrier over religious faith.
 
WilT said:
We as Catholics need to take better care of our own.

So He told them this parable, saying, 4 "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 "When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 "And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 Luke 15;3-7
news.yahoo.com/poll-latin-america-catholics-steadily-leave-faith-050615912.html
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The final document of the 5 the General Conference of Latin American Bishops at Aparecida is worth reading . 2007
 
Sy_Noe said:
Your posts about families divided and barriers make me wonder if I am in the only family where we have faithful Catholics who never miss a Sunday Mass and who otherwise are faithful, alongside family members who do not practice Catholicism, some who haven’t even set foot in any church in yrs, along with others who have made a Protestant church their faith home, and yet we all seem to love and support each other and generally get along. Oh sure we have our moments like any family. And there may have been some initial uncomfortable feeling among some for instance when a Baprist was entering the family. But it all worked out. But we have rarely divided ourselves with a barrier over religious faith.
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Maybe instances are different, but I have heard of families being divided because of it. Those who convert normally start speaking bad about Catholicism, and speaking about statues, Mary, just to name a few.

What is sad, is that our ancestors (I’m Hispanic, so I have first hand acknowledgement) were faithful people who constantly went to church, were part of the Eucharist, and were better people. Yet, we go and make them look bad, that is truly sad.
 
chero23 said:
Maybe instances are different, but I have heard of families being divided because of it. Those who convert normally start speaking bad about Catholicism, and speaking about statues, Mary, just to name a few.

What is sad, is that our ancestors (I’m Hispanic, so I have first hand acknowledgement) were faithful people who constantly went to church, were part of the Eucharist, and were better people. Yet, we go and make them look bad, that is truly sad.
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My ancestry is of European caucasian decent. My grandparents were immigrants and though not perfect, were good people too. And more faithful than some of us in the family today. But I haven’t heard any of us speak bad about them. Maybe you’re right though that it depends on the family. Peace be with you and yours and all families. And may Latin and other families be together even if there are differences in faith among the various members,
 
SuperLuigi said:
Islam is filling the void quite nicely.
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Only by outbreeding though. The average Arab woman living in Europe has far more kids than the average European woman. I think the European woman will have 2 and the Arab woman will have somewhere around 6 but it’s been a long time since I’ve read up on this. Add that to the thousands of immigrants yearly and that covers for 99% of their huge increase in Europe. They rarely get converts.
 
Not surprised at all. To put it in the simplest terms possible, alot of times Evangelicals come off looking alot more serious about there faith than Catholics, and now with the perception among some people at least that we may be about to change our teachings on homosexuality, we can expect more to leave.
 
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