West Coast Catholicism Is Booming

  • Thread starter Thread starter janeway529
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

janeway529

Guest
It’s rare to hear much about the church in the western United States. Given that the national media and the bishops’ conference lie in the East, that’s no surprise.
Click to expand...
Still, it warps our sense of the American church. In 1950, the Northeast was home to 46 percent of the nation’s Catholics. Today, it has just 28 percent. Los Angeles surpasses New York in Catholic population by more than 1.7 million. L.A.’s Our Lady of the Angels pastoral region alone has more Catholics than over 90 percent of dioceses in the country.
Click to expand...
The church in the West is different than in the East. It’s booming; indeed, the Fresno, Orange and San Bernardino dioceses are among the fastest-growing in the nation. It is also young. Fifty-six percent of Catholics in the West are under the age of 50, according to the Pew Religious Landscape Study. And only 31 percent are white, compared with 75 percent in the Northeast.
Click to expand...
Ask the bishops of the western United States to name the important issues of their dioceses, and they don’t start with the divisive topics bandied about by the East Coast press. They talk about poverty and the blessing that is Catholic Extension (an organization that supports mission dioceses), about their prison populations; and about the needs of immigrants and issues related to agriculture.
Click to expand...
Read the rest:
‘The Church in the West’
americamagazine.org/issue/church-west
 
Not surprising, given the rate of interstate migration and international immigration, the Gold Coast still draws large crowds. San Diego always had packed Masses.
 
Unfortunately many of the west coast Catholic churches I’ve attended didn’t resemble actual Catholic churches.
(American Magazine)
 
Although the city is named after Saint Francis, and nearby major towns are named for St. Matthew (San Mateo), St. Joseph (San Jose) and St. Clare (Santa Clara); the San Francisco Bay area may seem to be per reputation the capital of non-religion freethinkers. Yet Catholics in the area are a vocal minority with some power, notably in the leadership of the West Coast March for Life in San Francisco, which echoes the national march in Washington DC at about the same time of year (January). Below is a picture of that march in San Francisco, 2015.

http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/1CC0526277024820A834EFBF3670F0BD.png?h=268&w=400
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top