Which religion is grabbing the most Catholics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Karl_Keating
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
If you mean which religion is grabbing poorly informed Catholics? Then who cares.

If you mean which religion is grabbing well informed practicing Catholics who actually have taken the time to learn their faith then the answer is none.
 
Oh, I soooo agree with GeorgeCoony #22! I moved to another parish after sitting through numerous homilies that questioned the Church’s position on women and homosexuality. I coverted from protestant only a little more than 2 years ago but even after approaching the RCIA director about what was being preached and explaining how this type of “heresy” was leading people in the wrong direction, i.e. AWAY from the True Church, I was given a deaf ear. Are we not to set ourselves apart from the world? My faith was strong enough to just walk away into another parish but how many are not? On whom 😦 do the defections rest??? This made me very sad.
 
I believe it is the latest addiction, The World Wide Web. It’s growth cannot be matched by any Religion. It has the power to tempt souls in every way. This religion/tool of the Evil One certainly can lead souls that do not keep Christ first in their heart…down the wrong path. Some atheistic scientists celebrated that day in 1991 when the www. was born. By the way, the Traditional Hebrew alphabet of Christ’s time used letters to represent numbers, like Roman Numerals. My Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic Concordance says that www. was 666. Call for a copy…IHS Daryl 661.703.4444
 
I have to say New Age. The most converts from Catholicism haven’t officially left the Church and in fact are still in our pews. However, they are actually more New Agey than anything else and have bought into this new spirituality and Christian spirituality is foreign to them.

Just my perception anyways.
 
Karl Keating:
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?
Click to expand...
I really don’t think that many Catholics are converting to other sects I know some leave but that is like every religion. Catholicism is by for the largest Christians group. Catholics alone are all most as big as the owl Muslims faith. They are bigger then Hindus and Buddhist they are about 100 times bigger then the Jewish faith so there is nothing to worry about. When I was a little boy the only race I seen inn the Catholic Church where Latinos, Italian & Filipinos. But know I see a lot of Asians like people from Thailand and a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese they out number Latinos Italian and Filipinos combined inn my Church most off them where former Buddhist that converted. (Yeshua the great)
 
Jim ov Cov:
Islam, but it wasn’t up there. 50,000 converts in Italy alone.
Click to expand...
Where do you get Islam you don’t believe inn that fastest growing Religion myth do you. Islam wins very few converts most of it is lies and exaggeration. Time and time again shows that Christians win the most converts that is why Islamic country’s have anti-conversion laws to stop people from converting to the truth. Inn Nigeria 50-60,000 New Christians every year (Yeshua the great)
 
In Canada a recent poll by University of Lethbridge sociologist Reg Bibby indicates that most lapsed Catholics say they would never join another faith, but would be open to rejoining the Catholic church if it met their needs. But if they were open at all it would be to the faiths closest to us–Anglicans, Orthodox or Lutheran.
Ditto ex-Anglicans might be open to Presbyterianism and Evangelicals would be open to each other since their denominational distinctions carry little weight. Nobody is much open to crossing “family” lines, exmates of sacramental churches don’t become evangelicals or vice versa.

The enemy isn’t the Evangelicals, its lukewarms, the secularists.
 
40.png
bhanifan:
I have to say New Age. The most converts from Catholicism haven’t officially left the Church and in fact are still in our pews. However, they are actually more New Agey than anything else and have bought into this new spirituality and Christian spirituality is foreign to them.

Just my perception anyways.
Click to expand...
I completely agree. I think most Catholics don’t know what it even means anymore. Its a habit of going but not digging in. Sadly, we aren’t educating our people. “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Where are we missing it? Why are our people leaving? What will it take to keep them? You know, the truth is hard. We live in a “if it feels good” society. Choice isn’t always lovey feely. Its hard to decide to be Christian. Our rules are different. It goes against the “grain” right now. In the world not of it. Anyway, good question, worthy of thought for sure.
 
Catholics are changing to whatever Christian denomination they feel properly reflects Jesus’ teachings and compassion. We have a fair amount of Catholics at our Episcopalian Parish for many reasons but they all center around a lack of compassion and understanding on the Catholic clergy’s part. In the Catholic Church, if you have a perfect little family you’re all set; you’re a good Catholic. If you have a problem marriage, gay child, or any other significant human failings you are a lost Catholic.

At that point, your choices are to deal with a rigid set of unworkable rules and pretend that you are on the road to becoming a good Catholic according to this dogma, to simply not attend Church anymore, or to go to another denomination. A new place where they warmly welcome you solely because you are a Christian. That’s good enough for them. They know that Jesus’ loves you for who you are and he forgives your failings, so why would they judge you? They accept you with smiles and warm words.

A good example of a rigid rule that really gets in the way for most people is the exclusionary Catholic Eucharist. At the Episcopal Church, the Eucharist is very similar to the Catholic Church in most but not all ways. The major difference is that we “do this in rememberence of” Christ and all Christians are welcome to join us. We can’t imagine Jesus denying any Christian participation in the Eucharist so, of course, we would never exclude a Christian. We don’t have arbitary rules to exclude; we have rules to attract and welcome people.
 
I feel sorry for Catholics who change their entire religion just because they approach a clergyman and are not warmly received or do not feel as if their situation gained his full attention. That is a very drastic move. May I recommend to those who find themselves in that situation to try approaching another priest or deacon either within their current parish or even in another parish. Not every priest is going to be compatible with every parishioner. As I said, changing religions should be an absolute last resort. There are many fine priests and deacons out there who are more than happy to help.
 
I said Eastern Religions in the pole. I think Islam is, currently it is the worlds fastest growing religion and it has the least number of converts from it. So there are my two cents on the subject.
 
40.png
radesrochers:
A good example of a rigid rule that really gets in the way for most people is the exclusionary Catholic Eucharist. At the Episcopal Church, the Eucharist is very similar to the Catholic Church in most but not all ways. The major difference is that we “do this in rememberence of” Christ and all Christians are welcome to join us. We can’t imagine Jesus denying any Christian participation in the Eucharist so, of course, we would never exclude a Christian. We don’t have arbitary rules to exclude; we have rules to attract and welcome people.
Click to expand...
There is nothing stopping a non-catholic from going to a catholic church on any given Sunday and recieving communion. The priest can’t tell if your a non-catholic or not. No sirens will go off if you get in line for it.

If I attended an Episcopal service one Sunday I wouldn’t dream of going to communion, why? I don’t believe everything that the Episcopal Church teaches, so I’m not in communion with them. If a Protestant went to a Catholic Church one Sunday, they shouldn’t go to communion for the same reason that I am not going at the Episcopal Church. They aren’t in communion with the Catholic Church.

Catholics refusing communion to Protestants is not a sign of disrespect to them, it is a sign of respect. We’re saying we understand what you believe and so you shouldn’t take this communion because you would be violating your beliefs.

I hope this makes sense!

Peace!
 
As a Muslim who used to be Catholic, I am seeing that the vast majority of the thousands of converts to Islam in America per year were Catholic as well. Actually, every convert I meet was catholic before becoming Muslim. We all agree that the real primary attraction was the simplicity and purity of Islam. The purpose of life is to worship God, the creator, and everything we do in life should reflect this truth. Islam is the only religion that stresses this to the point that a true Muslim begins to see their life as a passage and worldy gains are not as important anymore. Anyway, my answer is Islam…
 
As a Muslim who used to be Catholic, I am seeing that the vast majority of the thousands of converts to Islam in America per year were Catholic as well. Actually, every convert I meet was catholic before becoming Muslim. We all agree that the real primary attraction was the simplicity and purity of Islam. The purpose of life is to worship God, the creator, and everything we do in life should reflect this truth. Islam is the only religion that stresses this to the point that a true Muslim begins to see their life as a passage and worldy gains are not as important anymore. Anyway, my answer is Islam…
Click to expand...
I’m not so sure about the “thousands of converts per year to Islam in America” figure, but I will take it with a grain of salt. But how any well catechized(educated) Catholic would convert to Islam is rather beyond me. And for what I know, and have experienced, I don’t know how anyone could prove that Jesus Christ was never God.:confused:
 
40.png
Catholic29:
I’m not so sure about the “thousands of converts per year to Islam in America” figure, but I will take it with a grain of salt. But how any well catechized(educated) Catholic would convert to Islam is rather beyond me. And for what I know, and have experienced, I don’t know how anyone could prove that Jesus Christ was never God.:confused:
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply Catholic29 – Just wanted to note: According to “The Almanac Book of Facts”, the population increased 137% within the past decade, Christianity increased 46%, while Islam increased 235%.
In a recent pole in the (US), 100,000 people per year in America alone, are converting to Islam. For every 1 male convert to Islam, 4 females convert to Islam. Regardless of how you research this figure, you will find that thousands convert, whether it is 100,000 in one pole, or 80,000 in another.
Being an educated Catholic is what led me to Islam –
I know how you feel though, and I respect it. This is a no win debate because my life experiences and prayers brought me to where I am today, and yours brought you to where you are.
 
emmy from texas:
Thanks for your reply Catholic29 – Just wanted to note: According to “The Almanac Book of Facts”, the population increased 137% within the past decade, Christianity increased 46%, while Islam increased 235%.
In a recent pole in the (US), 100,000 people per year in America alone, are converting to Islam. For every 1 male convert to Islam, 4 females convert to Islam. Regardless of how you research this figure, you will find that thousands convert, whether it is 100,000 in one pole, or 80,000 in another.
Being an educated Catholic is what led me to Islam –
I know how you feel though, and I respect it. This is a no win debate because my life experiences and prayers brought me to where I am today, and yours brought you to where you are.
Click to expand...
Which recent poll? That would be like me saying, “In a recent poll (US) 100,000 Muslims converted to Judaism” and expecting you to believe it. And what is The Almanac Book of Facts? I am not familiar with that.
 
40.png
WBB:
Which recent poll? That would be like me saying, “In a recent poll (US) 100,000 Muslims converted to Judaism” and expecting you to believe it. And what is The Almanac Book of Facts? I am not familiar with that.
Click to expand...
Yes, I understand your point. The World Almanac is a trusted source for current facts and is carried by all libraries. The following website will tell you info about this book:
worldalmanac.com/wab-waeg.htm

As far as polls go, it is a matter of where you are doing your research. I was referring to Readers Digest, but some Christians would say that it is unreliable. That is why I urged in my post to do the research yourself. However, I do would not recommend randomly choosing certain Christian websites or Muslim websites to educate myself about facts. Many websites are extremely biased, even if they don’t realize it, and forming opinions or getting answers solely from them is dangerous. As far as getting accurate statistics, it is best to go to objective sources that do not have a hidden agenda. I can tell you how many people I know personally that have become Muslim in the last 3 years since I became Muslim, but these kinds of things are not helpful because anyone can make up anything they want to support their case. Therefore, you can do the research yourself.

There are still more Christians in the world than Muslims, and countries that were at one time Muslim countries are now Christian counties, like Spain.
 
The JW group got my brother in law. We miss him, and he is always trying to preach to us…very trying and times!
 
emmy from texas:
As a Muslim who used to be Catholic, I am seeing that the vast majority of the thousands of converts to Islam in America per year were Catholic as well. Actually, every convert I meet was catholic before becoming Muslim. We all agree that the real primary attraction was the simplicity and purity of Islam. The purpose of life is to worship God, the creator, and everything we do in life should reflect this truth. Islam is the only religion that stresses this to the point that a true Muslim begins to see their life as a passage and worldy gains are not as important anymore. Anyway, my answer is Islam…
Click to expand...
But as an ex-catholic, you know that God instituted the things that you may be considering not “simplistic” enough (confession, communion) as a way for us to love and worship him. And what about Jesus…don’t you accept his sacrifice for you. I don’t think muslims worship Christ. You were willing to give that up?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top