This week I was reading the letters to the editor section in OSV(Our Sunday Visitor). In a letter from Mark Gray, Director of Cara Catholic Polls and Joseph Claude Harris, independent Church research analyst, we find that there is more than meets the eye in the Pew Forum survey. I suspected that this may be the case but never looked into it. While it is true that the Catholic Church has lost the most people, the percentages give us the full story.
The percentage of Catholics retained by the Church is actually higher than protestant denominations. Sixty Eight percent of those raised Catholic are still Catholic. While not a great number by any means, it is better than most others. Here are the stats according to the letter.
Baptists: 60 percent
Lutherans: 59 percent
Methodists and Pentecostals: 47 percent
Episcopalians:45 percent
Presbyterians: 40 percent
The only groups to retain more than Catholics are:
Hindu: 84 percent
Jewish: 76 percent
Orthodox Christian: 73 percent
Mormon: 70 percent
The letter went on to list some other problems of the survey. One was that it does not ask when the people stopped affiliating themselves as Catholic or why they no longer are Catholic. If we look at the poll in this light, the Catholic Church is actually rather sucessfull at retaining their flock compared to others. I believe that we as Catholic are still called to bring our lost bretheren back to the flock but the problem is in all the other groups as well.
I was taught in statistics class, in college, that statistics can be manipulated. This survey is a prime example of how they are used to promote peoples agendas… whatever they may be.
Please join me in praying for the return of God’s children back into his flock.
