One-Fifth of U.S. Catholics Not Linked to Any Parish - Page 2

medicalmatins · #16 May 11, '12, 2:05 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by baker22

I wonder how big of a deal this actually is.

I would think the age group 18-25 probably has a very low rate of registration. I suppose many of these are still registered with their birth family, but I'm not sure on that.
If not, I would say as many as 80-90% of this group is not registered in a parish.
I know I was in college for 4 years and graduated 5 months ago. I'm not in a parish yet, but working on it. This could account for as many as 10% of Catholics not being registered, which makes up half of this 1 in 5 statistic.

This is immediately what came to my mind when I read the headline. Gee, I thought, I'm in that fifth. I just finished four years of college and started four more of medical school. During college (TAC) I was spoiled with a basilica-sized chapel and three chaplains; during the first two years of medical school, I'm receiving the sacraments at a robust student center.

For this statistic to really surprise me, it would have to find a significant number of Catholics not connected to any community that provided catechesis and the Sacraments.

baker22 · #17 May 12, '12, 4:45 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by medicalmatins

This is immediately what came to my mind when I read the headline. Gee, I thought, I'm in that fifth. I just finished four years of college and started four more of medical school. During college (TAC) I was spoiled with a basilica-sized chapel and three chaplains; during the first two years of medical school, I'm receiving the sacraments at a robust student center.

For this statistic to really surprise me, it would have to find a significant number of Catholics not connected to any community that provided catechesis and the Sacraments.

But to be fair, my original post basically took all the best case scenarios(or is this worst case? :P). That being said, I was just trying to throw out one possible case for why someone wouldn't be registered. Add in people that have families and have recently moved, etc. and we could be looking at a decent size of this 20% that has legitimate reasons for not being registered.

Phemie · #18 May 13, '12, 4:36 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trader

If you register at a parish, they may start sending you Sunday envelopes.

When I moved to Fort Wayne in 1984 I was asked if it was OK to send me envelopes. I wanted to check if I had accidentally registered at an Episcopal parish by mistake. I did not know of a parish that was pro-choice on envelopes.

I don't understand this post.

I'm in a small parish. We only buy envelopes for about 1/4 of our registered parishioners, it's simply too much of an expense to provide envelopes to everyone when they won't use them.

We have 450 'registered' families but formal registration hardly ever happens. Once someone is identified as Catholic their name is added to the list since, as the only Catholic parish, we are responsible for all Catholics in our town including the ones who are posted in by the military. Rather than turning down someone who calls asking for marriage or baptism because they 'aren't registered', we simply add them to the parish roll.

We only put out ~100 envelope packets each year. I know some parishioners who donate regularly but since they want no receipts they don't bother with envelopes.

That said, there are a lot of people on the parish roll who never darken the door. We are still responsible for them.

Tigg · #19 May 14, '12, 7:04 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by curlycool89

Very-long-term stability is not as much of a thing anymore........

There's been a movement from small towns to cities for a long time, and people are no longer really that obsessed with where they came from (hometown nationalism). I've never really understood why people were so nationalistic about that anyways.

Congrats that you are "soon to be a seminarian!" God bless you along your journey.

One point I'd make is that perhaps nationalism is not the term to use. Many who are family oriented want the stability of the same school, neighborhood and parish for their children. They do want and cherish the closeness of aunts and uncles and other family members who can help in emergencies and be advocates for the younger ones. Worshipping together makes for more solidarity. Kids are flexible, but moving often (because we are a more mobile society) can create stress and a feeling of dis-connectedness within our families.