Posted on 07/22/2011 6:47:04 AM PDT by DogwoodSouth
"It is good to be here in the sunny south..." So said Francis Xavier Seelos, the now-beatified Redemptorist priest when he was arrived in New Orleans in 1866. Indeed, it seems that many modern-day Catholics would agree.
Recent statistics released by the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project show that while the number of Catholic priests and parishes has continually dropped in the U.S. over the past decade, the number of American Catholics has risen. This means that the average size of American Catholic parishes is growing, along with the number of weekend Masses offered at these parishes.
The 1964 research blog of Georgetown Univ. takes combines this information with recent census data which proves that the population of the U.S. is moving West and South (the so-called Sun Belt states). Once-bustling industrial states in the North are drying up as southern and western states grow by leaps and bounds. Michigan even went so far as to lose population at the last census (the only state to do so).
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Catholic Church is experiencing its greatest growth within our country in western and southern states. (You might say that Southern fried Catholicism is becoming more and more mainstream).
(Excerpt) Read more at southernfriedcatholicism.com ...
Second it!
And just keep on preaching that if you want Catholics to stay out of the conservative column. Nothing alienates quite like telling someone, "More of *you* is bad for *us*, because you aren't *us*, and never will be."
It is pretty hard to discuss politics, immigration, demographics, voting, voting blocks, and elections at a political site, if we work to keep conservatives ignorant of how people vote.
The South becoming less Republican, less conservative, is important. Don’t you worry about Catholic immigration turning Texas away from conservatism and Republicans never winning the Presidency ever again?
Demographics is destiny.
Do Catholics tithe? It’s an honest question. Because there is nothing I can think of that would be a greater racket than coming illegally into this country, taking U.S. taxpayer’s money and tithing 10% of it to the church. Of COURSE the Catholic Church would welcome all the “unfortunates” to our country. Caesar rendering unto the Pope, via us.
You wish.
If have any respect and awe for the majesty of God, there really is no other place to go.
Now that statement is just asinine....
No, I don't worry about that at all. Catholics who vote their faith will vote pro-life and pro-family. If the Republican party is pro-life and pro-family, they'll vote Republican. If the Republican party isn't pro-life and pro-family, to hell with it.
Catholics who don't vote their faith ought to become fervent Catholics who do, but in the meantime, they're voting wrong not because they're Catholic, but because they aren't Catholic enough.
Voting Democrat is not good for conservatism, how can that be asinine?
That doesn’t even make sense, saying, the only good Catholic is a republican voting Catholic, does not change the reality that the Catholic vote is mostly Democrat, it does not save, in this case, Southern states becoming less conservative, or even lost entirely.
“Illegal immigrants? Legal immigrants? Relocated Yankees? Unless these are conversions to Catholicism, why is this significant?”
It’s significant because it ties directly to the title of the article. It explains WHY Catholicism is growing in the south. We have more immigrants coming into the south than before, and they are primarily Mexicans, and Mexicans are primarily Catholics. Relocated Yankees, many of whom are Polish, Irish, and Italian, also are primarily Catholic. It’s not a difficulet concept. (The only Catholics I know here in my area of TN are from Michigan, and are of Polish descent.)
You want to thriw stones at CATHOLIC financial “rackets?”
Do you own a television?
I think you are wrong and chauvinistic: not stupid.
“Catholics who don’t vote their faith ought to become fervent Catholics who do, but in the meantime, they’re voting wrong not because they’re Catholic, but because they aren’t Catholic enough.”
Needs repeating!
Please substantiate your claims regarding Catholic voting habits.
Please substantiate your claims regarding Catholic voting habits.
What crawled into your bonnet? There is no reason to get hostile.
If you don’t know how Catholics vote then you only needed to ask.
Perhaps you did not read my question. Do Catholics tithe? A simple yes or no would suffice. And it has nothing to do with televisions.
I haven't seen any figures on this for about a decade, but working from memory, I recall that Catholics typically give about half of what Protestants give to their churches. Protestants average a little over 2% and Catholics about half that.
As well, immigrants from Latin America give less than native Catholics. In fact, Catholic parishes often suffer financially when older European ethnic Catholics move out and newer immigrant Hispanics move in. The parish in which I was married is an example. When I was young, it was populated by second- and third-generation ethnic Catholics - Poles, Italians, Irish [lots and lots of Irish], etc. It was considered a plum parish - large, affluent. It had at one time about 6 priests (a pretty good number even back when we had more priests than now).
The neighborhood has changed in the nearly 30 years since I married. First, it went predominantly black, and one of the communities that rose up in the parish were Catholic Nigerians and other West Africans. The parish began to decline because the numbers of Catholics moving were far less than the numbers moving out, although those moving in seemed to give at rates similar to those moving out.
However, the neighborhood has changed again, with large numbers of Hispanics (many illegal, I think) moving in. The parish is now mostly Hispanic with a large West African minority, and a smaller ethnic European minority. But the parish has more members than it has had in decades, since the folks moving in were overwhelmingly Catholic (Hispanics) and the folks moving out weren't as Catholic (mostly American blacks).
Yet, the parish has never been so poor, as the Hispanics just don't give money to the parish.
As well, although Catholics are obligated to support the Church financially, there isn't any hard-and-fast rule that one must tithe, although many parishes hold that out as an ideal. Also, giving to other charitable causes is often explicitly taught as being part of how one fulfills one’s charitable duty toward God. I've seen many Sunday envelopes in different parishes that explicitly asked the faithful for 5% of their income, and encouraged the faithful to donate another 5% to other charitable causes.
So, sucking in large numbers of Hispanics increases costs to parishes, but tends to decrease total revenues, and absolutely decreases per capita revenues, sometimes quite dramatically.
Hope that helps.
sitetest
Yes, your post helped greatly, sitetest. Thank you. I was truly curious as to if the Catholic Church requires tithing. And you answered my question. Thanks again. Regards, smvoice.
“What crawled into your bonnet?”
You did. Should I judge Protestant voting habits by Black Churches, with arguably higher attendence figures than other Protestants?
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