Does the American Catholic Church Have a Numbers Problem?
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
A fascinating Pew report out today finds that most Americans have changed religious affiliation at least once and that within this dramatic religious churn, Roman Catholicism is the biggest loser. Four times as many Catholics are leaving the faith as are joining it, the study finds.
And yet an upbeat E-mail from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops landed in my inbox today, with this triumphant first sentence:
A Pew Forum poll on Americans and their religious affiliation finds Catholics have one of the highest retention rates, 68 percent, among Christian churches when it comes to carrying the Catholic faith into adulthood.
How could the American religious tradition that boasts one of the highest retention rates be losing the most members? Easy, says Pew: because Catholicism is attracting so few newcomers.
Catholics are leaving the faith at four times the rate that newcomers are joining. "Religious change is not simply a function of retention; it's a function of recruitment. It's both sides of the ledger," explains the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's Greg Smith. "In no other religious groups we looked at did we see this high a ratio people leaving versus joining."
And yet Catholics still account for just under a quarter of the population, as they have for many years. That's because the surge in Hispanic immigration has offset the steady decline of white Catholics. Roughly 2 in 3 Latino immigrants are Catholic, according to Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. He also notes that Hispanic fertility rates are higher than those of white Americans, ensuring more Latino Catholic growth in the United States.
These countervailing trends in American Catholicism raise a question: Does the American Catholic Church have a numbers problem? Or, facing an American demographic future that's much less white than today, is the church's complexion merely changing with the nation's?
Tags: religion | Catholicism | Pew Research Center
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Reader Comments
abuse and rape of children by catholic church
The above comments imply that people leaving the catholic church aren't good people. I am willing to bet that a HUGE number of people leaving the catholic church are appalled and disgusted by the catholic church's WORLD-WIDE protection of child molesters.
What could be more a more natural progression that first you stop going to church because you are troubled and then finally resolve to completely break with the church?
THERE ARE CATHOLICS, THEN THERE ARE CATHOLICS
OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES, HOW MANY WOULD YOU SAY REALLY CAN BE COSIDERED PRACTICING AMERICANS, I MEAN REALLY LOVE THIS COUNTRY, IT LAWS, ITS WAYS, ETC. SO IT IS WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. YOU HAVE CATHOLICS OF VARIOUS DEGREES OR TONES, OR WHATEVER. BUT THERE ARE SOME REAL CATHOLICS WHO GO TO SUNDAY ALMOST EVERY SUNDAY, WHO BELIEVE IN ALMOST EVERYTHING THE CHURCH EXPOUNDS IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. THEY BELIEVE THAT CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD, THE SECOND PERSON OF OUR TRIUNE GOD, THAT HE WAS BORN AS A MAN, LIVED AND PREACHED THE NEW GOOD NEWS FOR THE SALVATION OF ALL MANKIND. THAT HE WAS SACRIFICED TO SECURE THE SALVATION OF MANKIND, THAT HE AROSE FROM THE DEAD AND NOW REIGNS IN HEAVEN WITH HIS FATHER TILL THE END OF TIMES AT WHICH TIME HE WILL COME TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. ALL OTHER "CHRISTIAN" RELIGIONS ARE HERESYS TO ME. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT KEEP TO THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW, WETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WILL HAVE A PRICE TO PRAY OR ALOT TO ANSWER FOR. THE WORLD IS TOO INVOLVED IN ANYTHING BUT RELIGION, AND LIVES A MISERABLE LIFE. I JUST HOPE THAT SOME HORRIBLE EVENT DOESN'T COME TO THIS EARTH FOR PEOPLE TO REALIZE THE FUTILE LIVES THEY LIVE WITHOUT RELIGION, SPECIALLY CATHOLICS WHO ABANDON THE WAY OF THE TRUTH.
CNA Column on Pew Study
A Catholic News Agency piece out today points to the obvious fact that media outlets like US News just gloss over; the majority of people who leave the Catholic Church are barely recognizable as Catholic to begin with, have no idea what they're leaving, and the majority are essentially children.
The writer also points out the misguided efforts of progressive forces in the Church that thought watering down the liturgy and creating a Protestant fellowship environment would keep Catholics from leaving.
The article also references this blog, and its worth a read:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/columns.php?sub_id=22
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