It's a gorgeous building (if a bit more Art Deco than your average church), but they're going to have to do something.
Posted on 05/09/2013 7:45:12 AM PDT by marshmallow
Dixie Catholics credit the strong Southern sense of community, and dialogue with faithful Protestants, with helping to power the Church’s growth there.
LINDEN, Va. — In the waves of turbulence that rippled throughout the Catholic Church in the 1970s, the nuns of St. Dominic’s Monastery found themselves forced to leave their longtime home in Wisconsin in search of a new one.
The nuns moved to a temporary residence in Washington, D.C., while looking for a permanent setting conducive to the cloistered, contemplative life they sought to lead. It would be more than two decades before they found one. When they did, it was what may seem a most unlikely place: the rural northeast of Virginia, considered one of the Protestant Bible Belt states of the South.
The story of St. Dominic’s Monastery’s southern move may be the story of U.S. Catholicism. New data shows that some of the fastest growing dioceses in the country are deep in the U.S. South.
The third fastest developing diocese is Atlanta, which saw the number of registered parishioners explode from nearly 322,000 in 2002 to one million in 2012 — an increase of more than twofold, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Atlanta also has the largest Eucharistic Congress in the country, with an annual attendance of about 30,000, according to an archdiocesan official.
Atlanta is not alone. Charleston has seen a 50% increase in parishioners over the last decade. Charlotte grew by a third, as did Little Rock. The Diocese of Knoxville, established just 25 years ago, is now the 25th fastest growing in the nation — and would rank near the top if those official figures counted as many as 60,000 unregistered Hispanic congregants, according to a diocesan official.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
thank you, Jesus.
Thanks be to God!
It's a gorgeous building (if a bit more Art Deco than your average church), but they're going to have to do something.
The pro-abortion/pro-gay marriage democrat party is basing their future on this.
They are praying for Catholic immigration to overcome the pro-life conservative vote.
Makes sense...illegal immigration has swollen the catholic numbers.
You are right, a beautiful church.
Thank you illegal immigration.
Couldn't see that one coming.....
Do you realize that this means the end of conservatism, that it means that the pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage Democrat party and American left takes over the United States and that Christians lose America?
Do you know that the anti-Christian left is hoping and praying for just this result, and that it is why they rewrote the immigration laws in the 1965 when the Democrats controlled the Senate, the Congress, and the Presidency?
This is a sincere question, do you know what this Catholic immigration means to pro-life conservatism and to the ascendancy and power of the anti-God left?
Do you realize that many of the nominally Catholic immigrants are converting to evangelical Protestantism? They are swelling the ranks of the new mega churches. The mega church to which I used to belong (before I converted) started as a predominantly white church with some black members; now it’s jammed with Hispanics, to such an extent that there are Saturday and Sunday traffic jams and the church has constructed larger and larger new buildings, whose capacity is constantly outstripped by the growth in membership.
Why do you feel the need to tell us that it's a "sincere question"? Are some of your questions insincere?
Is it because you realize that your shtick comes over as so ridiculous that some readers might laugh and think you're being frivolous?
You'd be right.
America has been committing demographic suicide for decades and now you're whining about "Catholic immigrants"? Republican appointed Supreme Court Judge Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion for Roe vs Wade and "conservative" America loved it and still loves it. Just like it loves artificial contraception. White America loves the pill and 2.3 kids.
You reap what you sow.
The latest version of this charade sees the Republicans trying to force their way through the door which says "homosexual marriage" so they can party with the Democrat "cool kids" inside and show the world that they're not "homophobic"
You're telling us that the Republicans are going to save us all from gay "marriage" and save civilization?
Go on, give us all another good laugh and say "yes".
The Vatican may be squishy on a number of issues dear to the hearts of conservatives, but isn't the Catholic Church pro-life?
Your indictment of Catholicism ignores the fact that Catholics who actually practice their faith and attend Mass regularly are extremely reliable pro-life, pro-traditional marriage voters. Parish formation and growth is not simply looking at a population density map and setting up a revival tent, it is base upon actual numbers of parishioners and attendance. In many instances the growth of Parishes in the south is the result of the devout Catholics from the inner cities and the rust belt relocating to areas of greater conservatism.
Peace be with you
Thank the Lord and St. Barbara it was never “wreckovated!”
Because of nasty, personal responses like that one.
After the personal attacks then the rest sounded like a democrat, basically, right on brother and you guys deserve us turning this into a solid pro-abortion democrat nation.
Pro-life conservatives are not amused by your post.
Something is odd about that, since Catholicism equals democrat political support in the voting booth. We just saw Biden and Pelosi, the two most prominent Catholics in America taking communion at the Vatican.
No one is saying that ALL Catholics vote pro-abortion democrat, just the majority of them, consistently, that is why the increase in Catholic voters tells us what the future holds for America.
Yes I am aware that many Hispanic Catholics leave that denomination to join a Protestant denomination, and those are in play for the pro-life republicans.
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