The Catholic Church is booming; bad news for chicken little!

CATHOLIC CHURCH IS BOOMING

July 22, 2011


Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on new survey data profiling Catholicism:

All we ever hear from the wild-eyed critics of the Catholic Church, including the dissidents within, is that the Church had better "get with it" and change its teachings on abortion, homosexuality and women's ordination. Yet it is precisely those religious institutions that are the most liberal on these issues—the mainline Protestant denominations—that are collapsing. Not so the Catholic Church. Indeed, its numbers are going north while the mainline denominations are going south.

The latest findings by the "Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership" project, a collaborative effort with Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, are illuminating. In the last 40 years, the Catholic population has increased by 75 percent; it has grown by 50 percent since 1990. More important, Catholic attendance at Mass is up 15 percent since 2000. And in the last five years, contributions have increased by 14 percent. It is also important to note that there has been a 40 percent increase in Latinos in the Church over the past five years.

Shedding more light on the statistics is a study released a few months ago by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion. Its "Landscape Survey" found that of those Catholics who have left the Church, roughly half became unaffiliated while the other half became Protestant. Regarding the latter half, only 23 percent did so because of the Church's teachings on abortion and homosexuality; only 16 percent left because of the way women are treated. Importantly, two-thirds of these Catholics elected to join a Protestant evangelical church.

In other words, disaffected Catholics who left for another religion opted to join a more conservative church. That they did not run down the block in search of a mainline denomination—one that entertains the liberal agenda on issues governing sexuality and women—is telling.

It's time some people took a hard look at the data and made some hard choices. This is great news for the Catholic Church.

>>>So many people have sent this to me that I did a little due deligence and decided to pop this thing up on my blog.  Some of this I've been saying for a few years.  The Church has seen many enemies come and go; some from the inside.  Despite this; she endures, thrives and remains the pillar and bulwark of truth.  1 Timothy 3:14.

The church has problems that are as old as her history and new to the times in which we all live.  We have endured more than a decade now the revelations of child abuse by clergy; an unthinkable and unspeakable possibility in most Catholics minds.  She sees abuses in doctrine and liturgy.  And she is negatively impacted by disobedience from some clergy and laity.  Yet she is sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit and guided by the words of Her founder, Jesus Christ: the gates of hell shall not prevail!

Despite the dire warnings; the church is growing; yes, it's demographics change and she flowers in places that, in the past, would hardly set eyes on a Catholic and she struggles deep inside many metropolitan urban areas.  She booms on continents that were hardly ever Catholic, Africa and Asia come to mind, yet she struggles in Europe.  But worldwide: growing and the numbers keep growing.

Vocations are turning around.  Sure we won't have huge convents overnight and the Priesthood still has challenges with retirement and deaths; but young vocations are very, very "catholic" and nice numbers are coming in from the 30 and 40 year old generation.  And social services, ministries and activities of holy Mother Church have never been more existent and needed.  You see, we are not in charge; He is and the Holy Spirit is the guide.

Many of you who read this blog watch, and a few of you subscribe to, guys like Michael Voris and his wild attacks on the Church.  In the name of the Church, he profits from calling out the Church, telling us where our eternal souls are not going to go unless we, well listen and subscribe to him.  Culling through headlines and reports, he finds something needing to be attacked, and often it does, and fashions it as if it was the norm and all Bishops made it happen.  He attacks singing Amazing Grace and the Knights of Columbus.  And his rants continue ad hominem.  Hey chicken little the sky might be falling but the Catholic Church is booming!