Which religion is grabbing the most Catholics?

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distracted said:
i agree… i think the problem is that not all Catholics are filled with the HS… They may HAVE the HS in their lives and that’s good… but they are not… infused with the HS… so to speak…

I’m beginning to think this “infusion” of the HS is rare in the Catholic Church…

either that or most peoples’ acceptance of and enthusiasm for the HS… is stifled… or repressed or something…
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Brother, it starts with teaching. Like Paul says: “Who will hear if nobody preaches?” A person who has not experienced the Pentecost in his own life has a hard time conveying it to others…
But we don’t give up. Also, we must remember that the New Pentecost is a move from the Holy Spirit himself, so don’t loose hope. I have met many many really awesome Charismatic Catholics in my life and I live in one of the most anticatholic secular countries. I also found out that people whom I wouldnt have guessed it about, have some amazing testimonies about healings, visions, and speaking in tongues… you just gotta get to know the serious Catholics in your parish and they will open up and tell you all the treasure.
I think the Church should encourage the laity to give testimonies on the Sunday Mass, about the great things God has done in their life. The stucture where all verbal service rests on the priest, is not what Christ intented for His church as far as I can see from the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul to the Corinthians.

Peace to you 🙂
 
My grandmother (my dad’s mother) was baptist and she tried so long to get my mother to convert to be a baptist. she thought the Catholic Church was evil. But my mom is pure Catholic. She didn’t budge. I was in my 20’s when I left the Catholic Church, but came back about 2003. And I am glad I am back home. Anyway, when my grandmother past away, my mom found a book about cults, and the Catholic Church was in it. I think it hurt my mom, but most of all I think it hurt the Lord.
I wish non-Catholic people would just open up their hearts and try to understand the Catholic Church.
Monica24:)
 
i hope it is evangelicals…

they are often far more Catholic than many Catholics…
 
:confused:
GraceDK said:
Brother, it starts with teaching. Like Paul says: “Who will hear if nobody preaches?” A person who has not experienced the Pentecost in his own life has a hard time conveying it to others…
But we don’t give up. Also, we must remember that the New Pentecost is a move from the Holy Spirit himself, so don’t loose hope. I have met many many really awesome Charismatic Catholics in my life and I live in one of the most anticatholic secular countries. I also found out that people whom I wouldnt have guessed it about, have some amazing testimonies about healings, visions, and speaking in tongues… you just gotta get to know the serious Catholics in your parish and they will open up and tell you all the treasure.
I think the Church should encourage the laity to give testimonies on the Sunday Mass, about the great things God has done in their life. The stucture where all verbal service rests on the priest, is not what Christ intented for His church as far as I can see from the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul to the Corinthians.

Peace to you 🙂
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great… but i am not a “brother”…

i can’t see how in my post i sounded male… :confused:
 
None, or Atheism/Agnostic are the fastest growing segment of the population when it comes to faith. Going from 8% of the U.S. to 16% in the last 10 years, and one has to suspect it is probably even higher than that as there is a stigma attached to answering “none” when asked about faith.
 
The majority of people not coming to Mass are going instead to participate in some kind of sports or dance activity. So, I would say, the cult of the perfect body is what is drawing them away from Church.
 
Karl_Keating said:
This is a question about your perception, not about statistics. Someone undertaking a detailed sociological survey might be able to come up with hard numbers.

I’m looking for your gut feeling, which may be based in part on what has happened to people you know or know about.

In your estimation, which religion has been most successful in inducing one-time Catholics to join it?
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I could not vote because my choice was not available to pick.

I am a convert to the Orthodox Church through the Catholic Church.

I’ve met many Orthodox parishioners as well as priests who have also converted to Orthodoxy from the Catholic Church or like me, through the Catholic Church (being Protestant first and then becoming Catholic and then becoming Orthodox).

**In my opinion, if someone looks from the Historical and Early Church Perspective, the only competition the Catholic Church has is the Orthodox Church. **

For Catholics who don’t know their Church’s history, then perhaps the LDS Church is getting the most Catholic converts? I don’t know, but I’ve heard from various sources that the statistics of former Catholics being active LDS members is really high?
 
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i think the “religion” taht is grabbing most catholics is the informal one made up of lazy and / or uncatechized Catholics… who just don’t think going to mass is all that important or at least not as importnat as working all week long, making $$, watching TV… etc…

i could never go back to that kind of life… 😃

just kidding, kind of … never was into $$… but used to be weak in some other areas…

fallen away Catholics are… uh… a strange group…

its not good to get a taste of the good things of Christ and then go out into the world… but maybe i digress?? 🤷
 
Lutheranteach said:
None, or Atheism/Agnostic are the fastest growing segment of the population when it comes to faith. Going from 8% of the U.S. to 16% in the last 10 years, and one has to suspect it is probably even higher than that as there is a stigma attached to answering “none” when asked about faith.
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I recently read (I think it was on the Gallup site) that atheists and agnostics are holding steady at 3%. Twelve percent say they are religious but unaffiliated. I doubt the number of atheists is really even 3%, since far from existing under a stigma atheism in the US has held the oligarchic status of a dominant minority for a very long time now, and anyway a large number of self-described athists say they pray regularly. I believe that a lot of the people who announce themselves atheists are saying it to gain social status or to fit into a small powerful circle of friends on a campus or somewhere, and really secretly believe in God. Otherwise, why do they pray?
 
It depends on what the convert is looking for. Those of European background who want some sort of “mystical” experience and are stuck in a mindset of orientalist fetishism generally go for an eastern religion. Those who feel bogged down by praxis probably become Protestants (how many times have we all heard “why do we have do X,Y,Z when we can just read the Bible and do what it says” or some similar statement?). Those who care about orthodoxy might become Orthodox.

In my experience, most ex-Catholics become college students. 😃 But this could be because I spent 2 of my ~4 years as a Catholic in a college town in probably the least Catholic state north of the Mason-Dixon line. 🤷
 
From my experience and feelings, many Catholics in Australia are converting to Protestant evangelicals, born again christians, they seem to find mire empowerment, a stronger biblical emphasis, strong Christian witness, and a more powerful sense of the Holy Spirit and his charismas, they seem so much more spiritual and supernaturally gifted, what more their preaching is outstanding and uplifting.
It’s quite hard for the catholic church to compete against all this.

Where. can I get help to counter evangelicals, so much of my friends are being lost. They end up being anti catholic and quite arrogant

come holy spirit, come and renew the face of your church
 
Evangelicalism definitely. A lot of Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and other old “mainline” denominations are going to these Nazarene and Assembly of God and Non-Denominational mega churches or large churches. The Catholic Church is growing also due in part to so much hispanic influx into the U.S. So Catholicism and Evangelicalism are the two big tents these days that I see.
 
I think it depends on the people in the area. What will get the most Catholics (or people of any group, for that matter) is:
  1. How strong is everyone in their faith? Do they know apologetics well? Weak-faithed individuals will get “grabbed,” whereas those strong in their faith will not.
  2. How big is the effort to gain more followers? Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons go door-to-door to get people to hear about their religion. Some groups spend money on advertising campaigns.
 
I would say the mega churches, but after some time many leave for a small church.

I haven’t read all the posts, so don’t know if anyone has brought this up, but while the Catholics in the pews are leaving the Church, there are hundreds of protestant ministers who are joining the Catholic Church.

Yes there might be a few Catholic priests who leave, but nothing compared to all the ministers coming into the Church from every denomination.

Of course ministers who start studying the Early Church Fathers and start really digging into what the Church was in the beginning are able to discern the truth.

Catholics in the pews haven’t been taught or even if they have, take no interest in what the Church truely is. Besides many protestant churches are much more fun and you can keep moving from one to another if something the pastor teaches isn’t to your liking.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette
 
I visit another board that has a Religion forum subsection. It is well represented by a cross section of people from many different faith backgrounds. Quite a few have admitted to have been Catholic and are now Pentecostal. Would that fall under the heading of Evangelical?
 
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