WASHINGTON–As many as 150,000 new or returning Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in 2009 in the United States. Many of them will do so at the Easter Vigil liturgies, April 11, in parishes across the country.
In some cases the numbers show the growth and vitality of the Catholic Church in places where it has traditionally been a small minority. For instance, the Archdiocese of Atlanta estimates that 513 catechumens and 2,195 candidates will join the ranks of the Archdiocese in 2009. About 1,800 of them will do so at Easter. These numbers do not include infant baptisms, which are recorded separately.
Catechumens are people who have never been baptized. Candidates are those who have received baptism in another Christian community and are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. [reference]
I certainly rejoice in each and every person joining or returning to the Catholic Church. But this number is not all that impressive compared to the past. In 1960 there was almost the same number (146,212). Yet in 1960 the population was over 120 million people less. Then again the number is almost double of what it was in 2002 with 79,892 and this year is a high water mark since the cultural turmoil of the sixties. Funny how all the “relevance” and “engaging the culture” didn’t quite work out as planned.
7 comments
What are you talking about? It’s working exactly as planned.
While this may be true of the US as a whole, it’s not true of the south. Catholicism has been seeing significant growth here.
I guess I’m missing the point concerning “relevance” and “engaging the culture”. I’d say from my own experience that southern Catholics bear those characteristics and many converts become interested in the Church for those traits and interactions.
Oh, dear. The only response that occurs to me is the “A!” word. Will have to hold onto it until the Easter vigil, when all those new Catholics join us!!
As an 18-year-old I converted in 1966, just in time to suffer 2,000 years of the Faith yanked out from under me by what in charity I must assume were well-intentioned misreadings (okay, I’m being sarcastic) of Vatican II. I had neither the intellect nor the sophistication to understand all this, and that I am still a Catholic is a gift indeed. My culture now is the Faith; my relevance is the faith.
Enneagrams, tantric massage, liturgical dance, felt banners, goofy noises passing as music — these come from somewhere else, not from God.
As someone who came into the Church two years ago, just reading this makes me tear up with gratitude. I’m so happy to be Catholic, and I want to welcome all the newcomers to the Faith!
Julianna, welcome home, dearest sister!
Mack, faithful converts are a gift from God to His church. Thank you for your perseverance.
150,000 coming into the Church is wonderful. But it is only 0.23%. Add that to those baptized as infants (my guess is about 400,000 per year) and it,s only 0.8%. Immigration will bring that number up substantially, but the number is still a small single digit.
Considering deaths and CINOs, and people quietly leaving, and now ‘de-baptizing’, we are probably actually losing members at a fairly substantial rate and have been for years. The 65 million number commonly seen just does not seem accurate.
The saving grace of all of this is that those coming into the Church are mostly on fire and Biblically literate Christians that are a great help to the rest of us. It is a good time to be Catholic and a good time to become one.