Which religion is grabbing the most Catholics?

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Kingdom means church

According to whom? This thread is called WHICH religion is grabbing the most Catholics - I don’t remember it being an invitation to tell Catholics they are wrong and why and why this Church (which I have never heard of before your posts) is an authority. I visited the New Church Web site - sigh.
 
I would say the “mega churches” that cater to the weariness of 21st society. They aim to be “feel good” places of refuge - sin is relative, etc. The idea is to come together in worship and not be shackled by RC or other church legalism. Unfortunately, I know a few who have succumbed.
 
Here on the Tex Mex border you would think So Baptist, but mostly pentecostal type mega churches, the ones with the big satellite dishes and convention halls, they build chapesl in colonias (settlements for recent migrants), have buses to transport to services, are heavy into the typical anti-catholic assaults on papal authority, Mary etc. huge radio budget, altho biggest Christian station has evangelical focus.
 
My experiences seem much different than most posted here. But I do have to agree with one post, the biggest threat to Catholicism is the Church itself.

First off, I don’t think the majority of truly believing Catholics want to leave their faith so much as they want to leave an oppressive hierarchy that vacillates from left to right every 25 years. Those I know who have left have actually gone to very mainstream groups that are closely in line with Catholic teachings, such as the Episcopalian or Lutheran, but where the emphasis on Mary isn’t as strong and the hierarchy isn’t so omnipotent. The biggest gripe I’ve heard my whole life is that the hierarchy is so out of touch with the people in the pews. Nothing is more supportive of that than the recent sex scandals. It was absolutely absurd to take an openly gay bishop out of Chicago and put him in charge of a diocese in Arizona that was rebounding from sex scandals. But there you have it…that was the decision and it stands. But the hypocrisy is overwhelming.

Secondly, when young Catholics leave it’s usually to experiment. The question is less “where are they going” than it is “are they going to come back”. Rastafarians drew away a large number of Catholics…but many, many have come back. Mormons made a concerted effort to recruit Latin Americans…but it’s so antithetical to the entire Latino cultural base that few actually stay beyond 5 years.

Some Catholics leave because they really don’t believe there is just one right faith. And maybe they’re correct. There are any number of faiths that are very closely aligned to the teachings of Christ but that aren’t as hierarchial…especially the Eastern Orthodox. In Chicago there’s a huge migration of Catholics to the Sister Churches, mainly because you get the same “fullness of truth” without all the scandals and litigation to pay off.

Finally, the young Catholics who “leave” were probably never Catholic at all. Catholic parents have done a lousy job raising their children in the faith over the last 25 years. So we have a bunch of kids who really have very little feeling of inclusion in the Church and who wouldn’t know transubstantiation from consubstantiation if their lives depended on it. So it’s the parents that have handed the kids over to the first girlfriend or boyfriend who really does have a strong sense of faith.
 
I don’t think it really matters which religion departees go to. And here in No. California we’ve got EVERYTHING (including very active satanic covens). I think approaching the problem of ‘diverts’ from consideration of which - if any! - other religion they join is backwards. “Paul” mentioned the fact of ‘graduation’ from Catholocism vis-a-vis Confirmation.

ALL of the ‘diverts’ I’ve spoken with over the last 30+ years had one thing in common, with no exception whatsoever: no real knowledge of Catholic beliefs. The base of the diversion problem is non-existent or grossly deficient catechesis. The *other *groups they wind up in depends almost exclusively on who hit them up first. Those of you who have experienced discussing religion with ex-Catholics know what I mean: they will object vehemently to beliefs we do not believe! When I’ve confronted them with what we actually do believe, they usually deny what I say. And this is easy for them to do since the local rel. ed. mavens proactively work to deny and distort true Church dogmas, and are backed up by some heretical clergy who are given free reign by a bishop’s cowardice.

The ray of hope is Pope JP II - since he is so actively ‘in your face’ (in a good way!) about orthodoxy, and gets so much publicity, it has become easier to demonstrate the falsity of diverts’ notions. Conversions here are still small, but on an upswing - and many of these are real Catholics (i.e., those who’d listen to EWTN or read CATHOLIC ANSWERS).

The complete answer to diversion from the truth is catechesis, which must be conformed to the mind of the Magisterium, sacramentally sound - including no more holding kids hostage to grace by denying them ALL the Sacraments of Initiation when they are supposed to receive them (esp. Confirmation! it should be given ***no later than ***just before first Holy Communion). In my diocese correcting catechetical abuse / disfunction requires dismissal of all diocesan and parish ‘directresses of eligious education’ (they are, and have been, proactively teaching kids false beliefs, NOT teaching them true beliefs, and telling them that sexual activity is not wrong as long as the couple [hetero or homo] have a “firm commitment”).
 
I guess my experience is a different from those who have so far responded to Karl Keating’s question. I live in a large Muslim community in the US. I know quite a few cradle Catholic women who converted to Islam when they married their Muslim husbands. They learned Arabic so as to perform the daily five prayers and to teach the faith to their children. Unlike most of the cradle Muslim women in the neighborhood, they even took on the hijab and veil. A few told me that they have found the serenity and peace and love of God they never had as Catholics.
 
As a non-Catholic (Episcopalian), I think this answer may differ widely by region. For example, when I lived in the midwest, an awful lot of the converts were former Roman Catholics (and, incidentally, a lot of the folks in that region were RC). Now that I’m in the deep South, a lot of the converts are former Southern Baptists and some other Prot. groups. I’ll bet that the a lot of converts to the RCC in the South are former Baptists, too. I see a pattern forming…
 
In my generation, we’re losing a lot of good Catholics to agnosticism and atheism. Their young minds do not care about searching for the religious truth; they want it to physically be true to truly accept it. And then, behind that, would come mainline liberal Protestants because their beliefs are more modern and are easier to accept in society (beliefs I’m talking about are sensitive issues, i.e. abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia).
 
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dredgtone:
Wiccanism is grabbing alot of people. Wiccanism is on the rise and Catholicism is on the downfall, it’s estimated that by 2030 Christianity will be the minority religion. I know you didn’t wanna hear statistics but i just had to throw that one out there.
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First, you haven’t sited any statistic, just your opinion. Second, Catholicism is now at 22% of the U.S. population, with approx. 65,000,000 members. Thirty years ago it was smaller, both percentage-wise and in real numbers, so I seiously doubt your pessimistic view here. Third, the last poll I saw concerning religious beliefs within the U.S. population showed that over 75% of Americans identified thenselves as Christians while over 86% claimed a belief in God.
I doubt “Wiccanism?” is really going to make any huge impact at all.
Bernie
 
Uh… Catholicism? 😃

Last I heard there was about a billion of them…
 
Outside of the United States it’s probably the Mormons their missionary efforts in Catholic and Christian countries are very successful.
 
IMO:

Secularism/post-modernism leads the way, followed closely by Evangelicalism/fundamentalism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses. The fad of the New Age and Eastern religions has blunted, though the ideas creep back into Christian theology with some regularity.

I don’t think the Traditionalists are siphoning off many these days, though their organizations grow at a healthy clip. For a time in the 90’s Evangelicals were being attracted to liturgy and tradition, so the losses from Roman Catholicism were somewhat offset by folks ‘swimming the Tiber’ in the other direction. Anglicans were likewise seeing this, as were Orthodox and some liturgical Protestants such as Lutherans and Presbyterians. This seems to have halted: the Orthodox have always been a tad to ethnic for many tastes. Meanwhile the Roman Catholic Church has been plagued by the priestly scandals, the main Anglican body (Episcopal Church USA–ECUSA) has created scandal in it’s latest decisions, and none of the Anglican splinter groups has thus far emerged as a viable counterpoint. Many liturgical Protestant bodies seem poised to follow ECUSA.

You didn’t offer quite so many choices in your poll as actually exist, and it would’ve been nicer to have been able to have rated the ‘top three’ sources of hemorhage. I efrained from voting for these reasons.
 
I was told not too long ago that those who call themselves former Catholics are the fastest growing religion.

I’d say the non-denomonational mega-churches in my area are neck and neck with the Bible-Christian types. Things seem to go from one extreme to the other. I wish there was more apologetics taught in the sermons, maybe then this problem would disappear.

Chris
 
agreed, as well, i had a very wonderfull rcia program, iam thankful to god for it
T.A.Stobie:
Unfortunately this is true of most ex-Catholics. If only they recieved better catechesis early. We need to pray that they come to understand the truth and the fullness of it.
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agreed
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luckyirishguy14:
In my generation, we’re losing a lot of good Catholics to agnosticism and atheism. Their young minds do not care about searching for the religious truth; they want it to physically be true to truly accept it. And then, behind that, would come mainline liberal Protestants because their beliefs are more modern and are easier to accept in society (beliefs I’m talking about are sensitive issues, i.e. abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia).
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This may be a departure from the original question only that it falls into the category of conclusion. The second largest body of Christian believers in the U.S. would be those fallen-away Catholics who have not commited to another religion. It seems the logical thing to do would be to find a way of drawing them back into the fold. As I understand it, most of them have left for reasons due to ignorance and misunderstanding. Wouldn’t this body be more accessable considering they haven’t made up their minds yet?
 
In Ireland, quite a surprise, it is Orthodoxy which is attracting Roman Catholics.

2002 Census figures show that the number of Orthodox in the Republic of Ireland has grown substantially. Unlike other non-Catholic denominations in Ireland which have been there for much longer and have a stable and established “clientele” the Orthodox are making small but surprising inroads among the Catholic population.

There are now more Orthodox Christians than Methodists in the Republic of Ireland, 2002 Census figures released by the Central Statistics Office show.

There are a total of 10,437 Orthodox (0.27% of the population), making the Orthodox Church the fourth largest Christian body in the Republic.

Information at “Orthodox Ireland”
orthodoxireland.com/
 
There is no doubt we lose people to the fundamentalists and some to the cults. But it is also even more true, in my experience, that we lose them to indifferentism. That is an area we need to focus some of our apologetics on. Far to many don’t know why the faith matters and don’t care. The sirens of our culture drown out the voice of the church. The Pope has spoken about this, but we have not really reacted to it yet. Perhaps things will have to get worse to jolt people out of their stupor and make them realize it does matter.
 
Fr Ambrose:
In Ireland, quite a surprise, it is Orthodoxy which is attracting Roman Catholics.
…
There are now more Orthodox Christians than Methodists in the Republic of Ireland, 2002 Census figures released by the Central Statistics Office show.
There are a total of 10,437 Orthodox (0.27% of the population), making the Orthodox Church the fourth largest Christian body in the Republic.
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0.27% is the fourth largest church in Ireland?
 
jimmy said:
0.27% is the fourth largest church in Ireland?
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But of course the number of Catholics is way way ahead of the others with 3,500,000 members. Total population: 4 million.
orthodoxireland.com/Members/FrGeoffrey/News_Item.2003-08-16.1651

**Godless Double in Ireland
**Some interesting statistics from Ireland: the number of non-religious has doubled, the number of Catholics has dropped as a proportion of the population, and the numbers of Muslims and Orthodox Christians has increased (most of these latter two groups are immigrants).

Those who say they have no religion have more than doubled from 66,000 in 1991 to 138,000 in 2002, said the figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Almost half of those without a religion were aged between 20 and 39 and of those, 60% were male.

The number who said they were Roman Catholic increased by over seven percent to almost 3.5 million.

However, because of an 11% increase in Ireland’s population, the share of Roman Catholics actually fell from almost 92% in 1991 to over 88% in 2002.
 
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