Here we grow again...

More good news showing the universal and national appeal of the universal church. While some parts of the country, and the world for that matter, lament the loss of Catholic institutions and traditions, not so in America. According to the 2009 Official Catholic Directory, the number of Catholics in the USA has grown to 68.1 million. Approximately 1 in 4 Americans are Catholic. This makes the Catholic Church the largest denomination in our country. And it is continuing to grow. Some predict that over 70 million Catholic Americans will be the count at the end of 2010.

Some contributing factors of course are the increased influence of Hispanic families in America. And then there is the unprecented growth of disgruntled evangelicals and other Christian denominations coming to the Catholic Church through the RCIA program. Every year, the number of adults entering the Catholic Church keeps growing and growing. This growth has been very robust in former "Bible belt" areas of the nation with dioceses in places like Atlanta, Birmingham, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville. Not to mention dioceses throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona even up into areas like Oklahoma and Nebraska.

This mirrors the recent growth in Catholic numbers in other parts of the world. While continuing to struggle in Europe, growth in Catholicism is rampant in Africa, Asia, parts of South America while showing steady growth in America and Australia. World-wide Catholicism is somewhere north of 1.25 billion now, almost 1 in 5 humans.

All we have to do to understand God's hand in these numbers is to look at the growth of Catholicism after the Protestant Reformation. Despite the rise of religious traditions, started by man, beginning with Luther, Calvin, Zwingali, conversions in the New World, including those after the appearances of Our Lady of Gaudalupe actually more than offset any losses in sheer numbers of Catholics.

Perhaps soon Jesus' prayer will be realized: "Holy Father, keep them in your Name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are." John 17:11 And truly to be one under the banner of the only Church founded by Christ should be our prayer!!!