Why no Catholic outreach in Utah?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Randy2
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Randy2

Guest
I read that Muslims of all folks have opened a center in Utah. I assume a missionary base. The JW’s have an active mission outreach in Utah. But the Catholic church seems not to from what I’ve read. Is it that catholics in Utah feel it is a lost cause to try to evangelize there?
 
I plan to retire there and go door to door until I have reached every Mormon household.
 
some time ago somebody on this forum posted a link to a great Catholic apologetics website in Utah, perhaps your concern is misplaced.
 
Are you aware that many of the Catholic Churches in Utah, particularly in the smaller towns, are considered missions? They are supported by The Catholic Church Extension Society. When I lived in Delta, we received funds from CCES to help with several parishes in the county.
 
40.png
puzzleannie:
some time ago somebody on this forum posted a link to a great Catholic apologetics website in Utah, perhaps your concern is misplaced.
Click to expand...
I’d love to know the URL.
 
40.png
TeriGator:
Are you aware that many of the Catholic Churches in Utah, particularly in the smaller towns, are considered missions? They are supported by The Catholic Church Extension Society. When I lived in Delta, we received funds from CCES to help with several parishes in the county.
Click to expand...
Oh yes - its a tiny mission church and very small there. Are there any contemplative communities or cloitered nuns based in Utah?
 
40.png
Randy2:
I read that Muslims of all folks have opened a center in Utah. I assume a missionary base. The JW’s have an active mission outreach in Utah. But the Catholic church seems not to from what I’ve read. Is it that catholics in Utah feel it is a lost cause to try to evangelize there?
Click to expand...
The JWs have active mission outreach everywhere, because every single one of them is required to do that. I wouldn’t compare the Catholic Church’s outreach to theirs.

I don’t know much about what goes on with the Church here in Utah, but I know that it can’t be said there is “no Catholic outreach”. There is the Cathedral of the Madeleine, the Diocese of SLC (especially the Catholic Community Services of Utah), and also lots of good information at Intermountain Catholic News. Each of those sites has information on Catholic outreach in Utah.

By the way - hi! 👋 good to see someone else from Utah here, or at least I assume you are here.
 
40.png
Randy2:
Oh yes - its a tiny mission church and very small there. Are there any contemplative communities or cloitered nuns based in Utah?[/QOTE]

I seem to remember a Trappist monastery somewhere in Northern Utah. We used to get honey from them. Let me see if I can find anything out about them for you.
Click to expand...
 
† Pillar Four – Supporting our Rural Church Communities
Click to expand...
(Rural Church Development and Missionary Outreach Fund)

Utah is a vast land of sharp contrasts. It is a land of harsh deserts and rugged mountains, a land where all is precious and nothing is taken for granted, a fierce land that quickly challenges the human spirit. Utah Catholics mirror the land in which they live. Though numbering a mere nine percent of the population, they have carved out their identity and shaped their destiny as surely as the pinnacles and peaks that surround them daily. Because they are scattered throughout the state, many of these Catholics often struggle to witness their faith and live out their values.

In these isolated regions, the challenge for the Church has been to support and maintain the faith of Catholics, especially the young and migrant Hispanics. It is tempting for people in isolation to identify with the majority group, often to avoid social estrangement. The living and working conditions for the priests, sisters and lay evangelizers are daunting. Each month they travel thousands of miles to provide Mass, sacraments and religious instruction for the people. Automobiles are quickly worn out; the costs of gas and auto maintenance is significant. The resources of the local people are slim.

Keeping these individuals linked to the Church will always be a challenge. However, maintaining this evangelizing presence in the missions guarantees cultural support for generations of Catholics to come. Endowed gifts donated to the Catholic Rural Missionary Outreach and Development Fund will be used for:

† Transportation needs including purchase of vehicles

† Purchasing of communications and data processing equipment and software

† Providing catechetical resource materials

Help those who are at least partially unable to help themselves by considering a gift to this Fund

This is from the webpage of the Diocese of SLC.

Obviously, it is very difficult to evanglize in Mormon country. It’s hard even to hold on to the members they already have. I have seen it first hand, where girls felt they had to convert just to get a date in the small Mormon town they lived in.

Still, the Catholic Church is not about to give it up as a bad job. :angel1:
 
I lived in Utah several years as a child. It’s true, the Mormon religion has the majority but quite honestly unless things have changed, if you weren’t a Mormon chances are you were Catholic. I recall quite a few Catholics in my classes (I was a heathen and there was one Jewish girl but everyone else was Mormon or Catholic). Maybe it’s changed a lot?

Lisa N
 
Utah is approximately 10% Catholic. It is the second largest religion in the state. Most of Catholic converts in Utah come from an LDS background. The Church is growing as an overall percentage of the state population. I think the Church is doing very well here.
 
40.png
Tmaque:
Utah is approximately 10% Catholic. It is the second largest religion in the state. Most of Catholic converts in Utah come from an LDS background. The Church is growing as an overall percentage of the state population. I think the Church is doing very well here.
Click to expand...
Lots of companies are moving their back offices to SLC. So there is an influx of non-Mormons recently. I had reaad somewhere that in SLC itsself Mormons as a percentage of the population have dropped bit due to the large in-migration to Utah.

In this environement it seems doubly important to the Church that it evangelize. Its the type place the Sisters of Nashville or some of the young missionary congregations that are actually attracting vocations would be ideal for. Or for Franciscan University of Steubenville to establish even some kind of small presence there due to its great witness.
 
40.png
Randy2:
Lots of companies are moving their back offices to SLC. So there is an influx of non-Mormons recently. I had reaad somewhere that in SLC itsself Mormons as a percentage of the population have dropped bit due to the large in-migration to Utah.

In this environement it seems doubly important to the Church that it evangelize. Its the type place the Sisters of Nashville or some of the young missionary congregations that are actually attracting vocations would be ideal for. Or for Franciscan University of Steubenville to establish even some kind of small presence there due to its great witness.
Click to expand...
I would welcome anything that gives exposure to the truth of the Catholic faith. Sometime in the near future I’m going to explore the possibility of bringing EWTN radio to the Salt Lake area. In Salt Lake City itself LDS are in the minority. The last poll I saw had LDS at only 46% of total Salt Lake City population.
 
I don’t like to use the word ‘target’, but I will. I think Catholic mission activity would have great success if they seek out the Hispanic population and tell them about the Church the things that they were never taught.

I read that many Mexican immigrants convert to Mormonism because of their outreach to help with immigration. I think if they were evangelisized by the Church and told “Did you know…a, b, c, 1, 2, 3? You were supposed to by taught this by the Church in catechism classes, if you weren’t then you really need to look into it.” I honestly think they would be very curious.
 
40.png
Tmaque:
I would welcome anything that gives exposure to the truth of the Catholic faith. Sometime in the near future I’m going to explore the possibility of bringing EWTN radio to the Salt Lake area. In Salt Lake City itself LDS are in the minority. The last poll I saw had LDS at only 46% of total Salt Lake City population.
Click to expand...
Is that true - 46% sounds too low. I had heard the pecentage had dropped a bit like down to 70% from 75%. Again, its the influx of non-Mormons to SLC for work that has caused some falloff but I find the 46% figure sort of hard to believe.

What kind of presence do the Pentocostals have in Utah? Do they gain converts from the LDS church?
 
Another question, can I assume the number of people who don’t profess any faith (secular) is going up in SLC with the imigration from outside the state?

Do you see an increasing secular presence as in attitudes towards gay issues and abortion?

Do you know the Catholic percentage of the population? I hear 6%, 9% and 10%. Whichever it is, it the church holding onto that percentage or dropping off. Is it having to close parishes there as it is doing in most cities now?

EWTN would be great there in UTAH. Parishes should also try to get mission weekends featuring speakers from Catholic Answers or Catholic Resource Center or some other orthodox groups.
 
I would definitely believe the 46% stat for LDS in SLC. I hated Utah when I lived outside SLC, because of the LDS snobbery that I encountered. When I moved to SLC I began to love it, because almost no one I met here was religious at all, much less LDS. Head a tad bit south to Utah County though…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top