Roman Catholic Church Remains Largest and Fastest-Growing in U.S.

[vocatio]

I am not anti Catholic. I am merely pro accuracy.

So you do have a political agenda here!

 

[Cathdefender]

The name of this topic is
“The Catholic Church Remains the Larest and Fastest Growing in US.”

I provided a link that makes it clear this is not true. It may be growing in other parts of the world but that is not what the OP said.

I am not anti Catholic. I am merely pro accuracy.

But you are not Catholic and non-Catholics are the only ones stating this. The simple fact is that non-Catholics cannot admit that we are the leading religion in the world. It is what it is.

 

[notself]

But you are not Catholic and non-Catholics are the only ones stating this. The simple fact is that non-Catholics cannot admit that we are the leading religion in the world. It is what it is.

No one is saying that Catholicism is not the leading religion in the world or even in the United States. What does it take to get through the simple fact that Catholicism has had declining numbers in the USA. Evangelical and Independent Churches have had an increase.

The only reason I am responding to this is this is the Non Catholic Forum and the OP said the Catholic Churh was on the increase in the USA. This is incorrect. Here is the link to the study and you can make your own determination on its accuracy.

religions.pewforum.org/

Give the report a chance by reading it and looking at the charts.

 

[rien]

No one is saying that Catholicism is not the leading religion in the world or even in the United States. What does it take to get through the simple fact that Catholicism has had declining numbers in the USA. Evangelical and Independent Churches have had an increase.

The only reason I am responding to this is this is the Non Catholic Forum and the OP said the Catholic Churh was on the increase in the USA. This is incorrect. Here is the link to the study and you can make your own determination on its accuracy.

religions.pewforum.org/

Give the report a chance by reading it and looking at the charts.

Exactly. Where does the report say the Catrholic church is the fastest growing? It is not. In fact the report says non-affilitated - as in agnostic or non-religious - is the fastest growing group in America. Close to 17% of the US population. Mormons, Muslims and pentecostals are all growing faster than the catholic church.

 

[dosdog]

Exactly. Where does the report say the Catrholic church is the fastest growing? It is not. In fact the report says non-affilitated - as in agnostic or non-religious - is the fastest growing group in America. Close to 17% of the US population. Mormons, Muslims and pentecostals are all growing faster than the catholic church.

United Council of Churches’ report in its 75th Yearbook of American and Canadian churches
UCC 2007 report, are:

1. The Catholic Church, 69,135,254 members, increase of 1.94 percent.
2. The Southern Baptist , 16,270,315 members, increase of .02 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 8,075,010 members, decrease of 1.36 percent.
4. Latter-day Saints, 5,690,672 members, increase of 1.63 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no increase or decrease
6. National Baptist Convention, 5,000,000 members, no increase or decrease
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church 4,850,776 members decrease of 1.62 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention 3,500,000, no increase or decrease reported.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,098,842 members,decrease of 2.84 percent.
10. Assemblies of God, 2,830,861 members, increase of 1.86 percent
    manilatimes.net/national/2007/apr/08/yehey/top_stories/20070408top1.html

 

[Annie_B]

It’s not “anti-Catholic” to suggest that the growth may come from immigration more than from conversion (or even, these days, large family size, though no doubt that still plays some role). When reasonable questions are ruled out as “anti-Catholic,” the quality of conversation really suffers.

Here’s an even more “anti-Catholic” but still legitimate question: just what does it take for a fallen-away Catholic to stop being counted as a Catholic? On what are these numbers based? Isn’t it extremely likely that many of the people being counted as “Catholics” do not in fact regularly attend Mass? Isn’t it quite possible that very many of these people are no longer practicing Catholics at all?

Edwin

Good points. I wonder too if the rate of growth in the RCC is due to all the infant baptisms. It seems to me that if all (ok most…) Catholics are having their babies baptized (a good thing:thumbsup: ) then the numbers of new Catholics must be growing in leaps and bounds. Maybe I missed the info, but does anyone know how much of the growth is due to conversions?

Annie

 

[notself]

United Council of Churches’ report in its 75th Yearbook of American and Canadian churches
UCC 2007 report, are:

1. The Catholic Church, 69,135,254 members, increase of 1.94 percent.
2. The Southern Baptist , 16,270,315 members, increase of .02 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 8,075,010 members, decrease of 1.36 percent.
4. Latter-day Saints, 5,690,672 members, increase of 1.63 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no increase or decrease
6. National Baptist Convention, 5,000,000 members, no increase or decrease
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church 4,850,776 members decrease of 1.62 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention 3,500,000, no increase or decrease reported.
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,098,842 members,decrease of 2.84 percent.
10. Assemblies of God, 2,830,861 members, increase of 1.86 percent
    manilatimes.net/national/2007/apr/08/yehey/top_stories/20070408top1.html

The Catholic Church grew by immigration not by conversions. Now there isn’t a thing wrong by growing by immigration but there is certainly nothing to crow about since the Church is loosing non immigrant members in significant numbers.

Read the report.

 

[dosdog]

The Catholic Church grew by immigration not by conversions. Now there isn’t a thing wrong by growing by immigration but there is certainly nothing to crow about since the Church is loosing non immigrant members in significant numbers.

Read the report.

Survey: Protestant majority disappearing in the USA
Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63% to 52%, after years of remaining generally stable, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-07-20-survey-protestants_x.htm

there are some areas where Catholic growth was greater than population growth.
There was an increase of 3.1% of Catholics in Africa, whose population has grown by slightly less than 2.5%, the communiqué said. “The Asian and American continents have also registered a higher increase in Catholics than in population growth, 2.71% against 1.18% for Asia, and 1.2% against 0.9% for America,”
jknirp.com/numcat.htm

The Christians Are Coming Back to Arabia – Fourteen Centuries after Mohammed

More than half of these foreign workers are Christians. Adding up the figures, Christians account for more than 35 percent of the population of the United Arab Emirates. Around a million of them are Catholic. And it’s not only in the UAE – in Saudi Arabia, too, it is estimated that there are already about a million Catholics from the Philippines
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/164081?eng=y

 

[Cathdefender]

No one is saying that Catholicism is not the leading religion in the world or even in the United States. What does it take to get through the simple fact that Catholicism has had declining numbers in the USA. Evangelical and Independent Churches have had an increase.

The only reason I am responding to this is this is the Non Catholic Forum and the OP said the Catholic Churh was on the increase in the USA. This is incorrect. Here is the link to the study and you can make your own determination on its accuracy.

religions.pewforum.org/

Give the report a chance by reading it and looking at the charts.

You are posting wrong information. this link is not reputable. You are a buddhist, therefore you may not know about the Catholic faith and it’s growth. You are posting incorrect information. I know you want to believe this but it simply isn’t true.

 

[notself]

You are posting wrong information. this link is not reputable. You are a buddhist, therefore you may not know about the Catholic faith and it’s growth. You are posting incorrect information. I know you want to believe this but it simply isn’t true.

What about the Pew Forum is not reputable? Can you provide a link to support your opinion? I am always willing to be corrected.

 

[dosdog]

What about the Pew Forum is not reputable? Can you provide a link to support your opinion? I am always willing to be corrected.

The Church in the South: Growing Pains
By Barbara Beckwith
The Church in the U.S. South has been blessed with amazing growth since 1966 due to a number of factors. But new members bring new challenges.
americancatholic.org/Messenger/May2007/Feature3.asp

Strobe Talbott
In 1992, Strobe Talbott wrote an article for Time magazine, entitled, “The Birth of the Global Nations.” In the article he stated that U.S. sovereignty as we have known it will cease to exist in the 21st Century. He asserted that all nations would soon answer to a single global authority.
The Birth of the Global Nations

Forward by
Rebecca w Rimel & Strobe Talbott
The Pew Charitable Trusts
brookings.edu/reports/2008/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/02_economic_mobility_sawhill/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_foreword.pdf

 

[notself]

The Church in the South: Growing Pains
By Barbara Beckwith
The Church in the U.S. South has been blessed with amazing growth since 1966 due to a number of factors. But new members bring new challenges.
americancatholic.org/Messenger/May2007/Feature3.asp

Strobe Talbott
In 1992, Strobe Talbott wrote an article for Time magazine, entitled, “The Birth of the Global Nations.” In the article he stated that U.S. sovereignty as we have known it will cease to exist in the 21st Century. He asserted that all nations would soon answer to a single global authority.
The Birth of the Global Nations

Forward by
Rebecca w Rimel & Strobe Talbott
The Pew Charitable Trusts
brookings.edu/reports/2008/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/02_economic_mobility_sawhill/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_foreword.pdf

Where is the critique of the study done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life? Your links are to articles about the economy none of which are done by the PFRPL.

 

[dosdog]

Where is the critique of the study done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life? Your links are to articles about the economy none of which are done by the PFRPL.

Where is the critique
just got back from Mass no one ever heard of the pew forum

critique over and out

 

[Cathdefender]

Why don’t you explain the “pew forum” for us.

 

[dosdog]

Why don’t you explain the “pew forum” for us.

Some however did know Strobe - let’s just say - no christmas cards

New Tax Status Allows Pew to Aggressively Lobby for Economically Draconian Anti-Fossil Fuel Policies

Pew’s Evolution: Political Agenda Betrays Founder’s Beliefs

Pew’s president Rebecca Rimel is un-abashed about her programs “injecting themselves into the governing process.”She once famously told a University of Pennsylvania audience, “Philanthropic foundations are sometimes criticized for having a social agenda. Well, you know what? They’re right!”
capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/05_04_FW.pdf

 

[Greg27]

I think these sorts of things should be read with care. The Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches in the U.S. are quite strong and growing rapidly, and a lot of the expansion in the Catholic Church can be explained as being caused by immigration into the U.S. by Catholics from Mexico and Latin America (which is overwhelmingly Catholic). One should keep in mind the number of people who don’t hold a religious belief is also growing fast, in the U.S. but also in Europe and elsewhere, except the Middle East.

 

[Cathdefender]

I think these sorts of things should be read with care. The Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches in the U.S. are quite strong and growing rapidly, and a lot of the expansion in the Catholic Church can be explained as being caused by immigration into the U.S. by Catholics from Mexico and Latin America (which is overwhelmingly Catholic). One should keep in mind the number of people who don’t hold a religious belief is also growing fast, in the U.S. but also in Europe and elsewhere, except the Middle East.

Absolutely incorrect. Fact is there are Protestant, and other denominations who are becoming Catholic more and more each day.
It has little to do with immigration. People are just plain tired of the worn out secularism and they are turning to the church which they thought they never would. The Catholic church.

 

[vocatio]

If you’ve watched the Journey Home religiously , as I do, you would have heard him say there…or was it on the Coming Home Network or Catholic Radio…[yes, I’m addicted to learning about the teaching and trends in the Church now]…that never in the history of the Church has so many people from Protestant denominations, particularly Protestant Ministers, been converting on such a massive scale. The common thread is that their journey to conversion to the one holy catholic and apostolic church is contributed on basically a few things and grew into many as they saw the fallacy of their own faith in action…

• Where did the bible come from and who decided which books should be there and why
• reading the ancient church fathers
• messed up church authority and seeing the twists of beleifs within there own mainline denomination or individual congregations

These were my 3 mainline problems. But there were more.

 

[Contarini]

Good points. I wonder too if the rate of growth in the RCC is due to all the infant baptisms. It seems to me that if all (ok most…) Catholics are having their babies baptized (a good thing:thumbsup: ) then the numbers of new Catholics must be growing in leaps and bounds. Maybe I missed the info, but does anyone know how much of the growth is due to conversions?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the Catholic Church regards an infant baptized into the Faith as any less of a “convert” than an adult convert. Baptism is baptism. Obviously if those infants grow up to fall away, then that’s a problem.

Edwin

 

[Contarini]

I agree. The US Catholic church is in collapse as much as the Espiscopal church.

I don’t think either church is collapsing. Both are undergoing a metamorphosis. In the case of the Episcopal Church this appears to be a metamorphosis into two churches. One of them–the Episcopal Church as currently organized–will almost certainly continue to be a relatively small (probably a bit smaller than at present, but not necessary much smaller), elite, liberal church. It will lose numbers, but these numbers will to some extent be replenished by young, upwardly mobile people who come from more conservative backgrounds. It will slowly dwindle but will not collapse any time soon.

Optimistically, we will see a single evangelical Anglican alternative emerge in the U.S. Less optimistically, there will be a lot of different groups with similar beliefs competing against each other. Whether this church or churches will significantly grow I don’t know. I suspect that it will also remain fairly small, and will split the “upwardly mobile, educated evangelical fleeing anti-intellectualism and tacky worship” constituency with the Episcopal Church. It will probably not lose members as fast, but I don’t think it will boom into something huge.

Of course, these predictions may turn out to be nonsense. I hope that some of them will!

Edwin