This is not the story of a faith nearing the end of the road

The myth of Catholic “decline”

By Deacon Greg Kandra

It can be tempting, when ingesting a daily diet of internet chatter, to think the Catholic Church these days is a disaster. Things have never been worse. Vatican II destroyed the faith. Batten down the hatches. The barque of Peter is taking on water, and sinking fast.

So goes the popular thinking among some on the web. Clearly, the institution’s days are numbered.

Really?

This morning, I read about a new church being built in the heart of the South, an area once dominated by Protestants. It is, in fact, a new cathedral, rising in Raleigh, North Carolina:

Bishop Michael Burbidge announced the construction of Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral at a press conference in May.Noting the rapid growth of the diocese, the bishop said it is his “hope, dream and prayer to build a mother church, to build a cathedral” to replace the existing Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Raleigh. 

Sacred Heart Cathedral has a capacity of 320 people and was originally completed in 1924, when the Catholic population of the state was just 6,000. Today, however, the cathedral has burst its seams, serving a parish base of 3,000 Catholics in a diocese that is home to almost half a million Catholics, or 4.8% of the state’s population. 

“We have people literally out in the street,” the bishop said, pointing out that Christmas and Easter celebrations see typically 13-14 Masses, with overflow locations at the cathedral-school basement and local Clarion hotel unable to serve the influx of worshippers. 

Bishop Burbidge told reporters that the cathedral helps the bishop “gather the faithful of the diocese to worship as one.”“Our current cathedral does not [allow that], because it is the smallest one in the U.S., except for Juneau, Alaska.” 

Bishop Burbidge explained the diocese has seen 180% growth since 1990. By 2030, the diocese is expected to serve more than 1 million Catholics. “We are a vibrant diocese,” he said. 

The bishop added that 1,200 people came into the Church at this year’s Easter vigil, he is celebrating the confirmation of 3,500 high-schoolers in 2014, and he just dedicated his 11th new church in his eight years as bishop.

This sent me on a search for more information about the state of the Catholic Church—and I found it, on a site called Catholic Voices. This posting from March of 2013 didn’t get much attention last year, maybe because it is a site based in the UK. But it’s a treasure trove of facts and statistics. If you want a clear and unbiased picture of the state of global Catholicism these days, here:

Viewed globally the Church experienced a spectacular growth over the twentieth century which shows little sign of slowing. 

In 1900 there were roughly 266 million Catholics in the world. This rose to 1,045 million by 2000. By 2010 there were 1,197 million [just over a billion], according to the 2012 edition of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, the ‘Statistical Yearbook of the Church’. 

Over the last 40 years, Catholics have consistently made up between 17 and 18pc of the world’s population; having been steadily about 17.3pc in recent years, they now are probably about 17.5pc. Current growth in the world’s Catholic population is slightly outpacing general population growth.

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Check out the Catholic Voices site for a fuller picture—which includes the genuinely impressive recovery of vocations in Europe and North America. Truth be told, the numbers in parts of the United States—like Raleigh, for example—are historic. (I was thunderstruck by a visit I made to a parish in Dallas last year; the place is so busy and bustling, one woman told me, some nights you can’t find a parking space in the church lot.)

And converts, of course, keep coming; the Archdiocese of Washington just logged a record number of new Catholics who joined the faith through RCIA.

I found all of this inspiring—putting a lie to what the Catholic Voices site aptly calls “the myth of Catholic ‘decline.’”

Be of good cheer. This is not the story of a faith nearing the end of the road.

In many places, in fact, the journey is just beginning.

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Read more: www.patheos.com