The Church needs to shrink, not grow, as +Francis keeps insisting, and persecution will be the means to do it.
I don’t think people answer surveys honestly anymore. To much political correctness. I also think it does not matter a wit. God will protect his Church either way with more of us or with less of us.
wow, is this Catholic hour? 5 of the last 10 postings here are about Catholic topics.
“The Church needs to shrink, not grow, as +Francis keeps insisting, and persecution will be the means to do it. “
I so much agree with that. I’ve seen my Lutheran church have “growth” turn into their religion.
Whatever it takes to bring in more and more people. There is no concern if these people who must be brought in by having offers of coffee and popular music might eventually start having a voice in the future direction of the church.
Different thread, different polls, similar results:
....on social issues, especially homosexuality, Catholics are far more likely to be liberal than other Christians, and even Americans in general....the Pew Center finds that an overwhelming number of US Catholics aged 18 to 29 accept homosexuality (85 percent) and support same-sex marriage (75 percent). More worryingly for conservative Catholics, when the question is asked of weekly massgoers, who are by definition more likely to be involved in the faith and in their parish, the number of overall pro-SSM Catholics is an astonishing 45 percent. Only 44 percent of weekly massgoers support the Church’s teaching, which is to oppose same-sex marriage. The last 11 percent presumably don’t know how they feel. Given the strong cultural currents moving toward full acceptance of gay marriage, there is no reason to believe that when they do make their minds up, that all, or even most, of those undecided Catholics will break for the Church’s position. In fact, given that Pew’s analysis doesn’t break out the weekly massgoers by age group, it is likely that the opposition to SSM is heavily weighted toward the seniors, a group that is literally dying out........In general, the higher a share of a country’s residents are Catholic, the higher percentage of residents express tolerance toward divorce and towards gays. The effect isn’t huge, but it’s consistent.
-- from the thread Catholics, the Real Liberals
Exactly! We can't expect kids raised in the 60s-80s to keep their faith when they were taught it so poorly.
There is a big reason for this result.
The Catholic church in the USA is by and large affiliated with the Democratic party. As the Dem’s jumped to apostasy, many Catholics followed suite because it was part of their identity.
My late father in law was a life long Catholic and always (till I came into the family) voted Democrat. He also had views that paralleled what the poll said because he viewed the Democratic party as so heavily influenced by the Church, that if they believed it it must be ok.
The same is true for the Evangelicals, only on the flip side. Many of the views held by Evangelicals are not based in their theology but their party affiliation .
I observed some time ago, that two of the biggest problems facing the RC Church are the number of Europeans who don't attend mass, and the number of Americans who do...
Matthew 22:14
For many are called, but few are chosen.