Catholics
draw new converts
More than 187,000 adult Americans became Catholics Saturday evening as the church continued to grow despite a dwindling numbers of priests and nuns. The Roman Catholic Church, whose members make up nearly 25 percent of the U.S. population, is growing faster than any other major Christian denomination. The number of converts to Catholicism has risen each year since the mid-1990s.
Saturday evening's Easter Vigil Masses to welcome new members came as the U.S. church is battling this year to overcome a black eye from a priest sex scandal.
Paul Stoyke, a 40-year-old divorced man, was one of 41 people who joined the Catholic Church at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in West Des Moines. Raised as a Presbyterian by parents who were Lutheran, Stoyke said he moved from the atheistic philosophy of author Ayn Rand back to his Protestant roots and then to the Catholic Church. "I was attracted by the Catholic Church's teachings on social justice," he said. "I wanted an intellectually coherent faith, something with traditions and scholarship that offers a comprehensive world view that is more than just today's upper-class prejudices."
Adults wishing to join the Catholic Church generally do so on the eve of Easter when the church baptizes adults, and also celebrates the sacraments of confirmation and first Communion with converts. The Easter Vigil is the highest liturgical celebration of the year, replete with clouds of spicy incense and rituals steeped in ancient religious symbolism. The service begins after sunset with the church in total darkness. A bonfire is lit outside the church doorway. A large beeswax candle is imbedded with five pieces of incense and lit from the bonfire. The candle is carried into the church and used to light candles held by people in the pews. The dramatic entrance procession includes the priest, those who will become fully initiated members of the church and others who will participate in the service.
With 63 million members, the Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the United States. Major Protestant denominations - Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopals and Lutherans - continue to shrink, but more adults join the Catholic Church each year than any other Christian church. Some evangelical and non-denominational Christian faiths boast larger annual percentages of growth, but their overall membership is significantly less. Converts represent only a fraction of the growth of the U.S. Catholic Church, which, according to statistics reported in Time magazine, has doubled in size since 1950. Much of the growth is in immigrants. Latinos now account for 25 percent of the church's members. Also since 1950, the number of priests and nuns has declined and the number of parishes without a resident priest increased dramatically, according to Time. All four Catholic dioceses in Iowa are clustering rural parishes and assigning more administrative and pastoral duties to lay people as the number of priests drops. Some parishes have closed because the dioceses did not have enough priests to administer sacraments everywhere.
Adults have a variety of reasons to become Catholic. They say they do so to unify a marriage, because of spiritual hunger, or a desire for community, said Hurley, citing a study completed by his office in 2000. The majority of adults who become Catholic initially are motivated because they are married to a Catholic, said Ann Mertes, adult faith formation coordinator at St. Francis of Assisi in West Des Moines. But she said that a significant number arrive on their own from Protestant denominations, other religions or from unchurched backgrounds. Stoyke, an operations processor at Wells Fargo who also teaches political science at Des Moines Area Community College, said joining the church is another step in a spiritual journey that began after he became a father in his mid-30s. Some people reject their family faith traditions during their teen and young adult years. After marriage, or particularly the birth of a child, they may return to church for the sake of themselves and their family, said Mertes. Stoyke said he resisted evangelists for years. "Hundreds of people tried to talk with me about becoming a Christian. I found it very intrusive. Many were poorly read and aggressive in their proselytizing. It was offensive and soured me to Christianity for many years," said Stoyke.Stoyke attended several Lutheran churches and then an American Reformed Church. After going through a divorce, Stoyke says he found an openness in the Catholic Church that appealed to him. "I saw religion catering to the well-off, but the Catholic Church offered something different: hope and redemption. I saw the Catholic Church as more inclusive, much more so than I found in Protestant churches, and offering something that transcends what you can buy," he said.
Leanna Brady joined the church Saturday, too.She was baptized, confirmed and received into full Communion Saturday at Our Lady's Immaculate Heart Catholic Church in Ankeny. Brady was raised Presbyterian and had considered herself an active member of her church, although she had never been baptized. After a failed first marriage, Brady, 34, began dating a divorced Catholic. During their courtship, the couple often attended Mass together, and Brady decided she wanted to become a Catholic. Brady and her husband were married two years ago in a civil ceremony and began the process of having their first marriages annulled. At the same time, she began the formal process of classes and rites for people interested in becoming Catholic. The process typically takes a year or longer and culminates at the Easter Vigil. Brady says the emphasis on the sacraments drew her to Catholicism. "I had thought Catholics didn't have a personal relationship with God, that their faith was just about rituals because that's all I'd seen from the outside looking in. I came to realize that it is about having a personal relationship with God, and the sacraments and rituals enhance the relationship. They're not just symbolism. It's a very real, concrete faith," she said. Both Stoyke and Brady say the priest scandals did not make them question their decisions to join the church.
Need advise on converting or have questions about converting? Contact us in confidence!