AT SEA
RCIA BRINGS IN 150,000
THE LARGEST CHURCHES IN AMERICA
MY "BOSTON GLOBE" INTERVIEW
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Check our web site this week for the video version of our "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." Yesterday morning I viewed the next-to-last iteration, and it looks very good.
By the end of the week we hope to have the video available in several versions. The first may be online by the time you read this.
SETTING SAIL
On Friday I leave for the third annual Catholic Answers apologetics cruise. If you're signed up for it, I'll see you on board the ship. If you're not signed up for it, maybe I'll see you on next year's cruise.
Already we have given thought about the itinerary for 2005. We have winnowed a long list of possibilities. There is no decision yet about where to go, but we have decided where not to go.
We will not circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego, park ourselves in the Persian Gulf, or visit the Bermuda Triangle during hurricane season. We have decided to limit consideration to those locales that allow us a good chance of returning to port with all of our participants accounted for and with no need for a mass distribution of Dramamine.
This may disappoint thrill seekers, but we don't sponsors cruises in order to make it into "Adventure" magazine.
Since I won't have access to my computer next week, the October 5 E-Letter will be pre-recorded for airing in your time zone, which is to say that I will write it tomorrow.
By necessity it will contain no breaking news. If the news breaks in my absence, I will try to repair it after returning home from the cruise.
THIS YEAR'S NEW CATHOLICS
At the Easter vigil about 150,000 Americans joined the Catholic Church through the RCIA program. About two-fifths of them received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist, while the others, already baptized in Protestant or other churches, came into full membership.
Other people entered the Church this year privately--that is, without going through RCIA. And then there are the reverts, fallen-away Catholics who returned to the Church after going to confession. I don't have totals for these two groups, but I would guess them to number in the tens of thousands.
THE TEN LARGEST CHURCHES
The "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches for 2004" says there are 215 denominations with 161 million members. The complete report can be found at:
www.electronicchurch.org
Here are the top ten churches in the U.S., with numbers representing millions of adherents:
1. Catholic Church, 66.4
2. Southern Baptist Convention, 16.2
3. United Methodist Church, 8.3
4. Church of God in Christ, 5.5
5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 5.4
6. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 5.0
7. National Baptist Convention USA, 5.0
8. National Baptist Convention of America, 3.5
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3.4
10. Assemblies of God, 2.7
Keep in mind that most Evangelicals and Fundamentalists belong to small denominations, but there are many such denominations. If you tally the membership statistics for all of the Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches, including in that number those who consider themselves "independent" of any denominational ties, you end up with a total that rivals the Catholic population.
THE INTERVIEW THAT WENT NOWHERE
Last week I got a call from Michael Kranish, a reporter for the "Boston Globe." This is the newspaper that broke the priest scandal a couple of years ago and that long has been considered less than friendly to the Catholic Church.
Kranish said he was working on a story about Catholics and the elections and wanted to talk about Catholic Answers' "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." What he really wanted was a damaging (or damning) quotation from me. I didn't give him one.
It was clear that he was fishing for my endorsement of Candidate A or my dis-endorsement of Candidate B. I emphasized that our voter's guide mentions no candidate by name, refers to no political parties, and says that the principles it discusses should be applied not just to big-name federal contests but at the state and local level as well.
I also said that Catholic Answers is a 501(c)(3) organization and as such takes no active part in politics. Our voter's guide presents the Church's moral teachings on five key issues, but it does not attempt to evaluate any candidate according to those teachings. That's left up to the individual reader.
Kranish repeatedly asked, "Wouldn't you say that your guide implicitly endorses ..." And I'd say, "No, it doesn't say that at all. What it says is ..." He was trying to put words in my mouth, and I wouldn't let him.
Apparently I left him disappointed. His article appeared in Monday's paper, and the only reference to Catholic Answers was in the fourth paragraph, which read:
"Private groups also have been urging Catholics to oppose candidates who favor abortion and other issues the church condemns. Earlier this month, a nonprofit organization called Priests for Life announced a $1 million campaign, including television commercials, aimed at persuading voters to support candidates who oppose abortion. Another nonprofit, Catholic Answers, is issuing millions of voter guides that list five 'nonnegotiable issues for Catholic voters: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and 'homosexual marriage.'"
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' new discussion forums at:
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
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