WASHINGTON (EWTN News) — A new study shows that infant baptisms in the Catholic Church have been declining year by year along with the birth rate in the U.S.
The numbers “are generally moving in step with the overall fertility rate, which has also been falling, more so since the recession in 2008,” said researchers from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate on Aug. 24.
Results show that although the numbers of those entering the Catholic Church are almost high enough to keep up with the number of Catholics who pass away each year, this may not always be the case if current trends continue.
The survey noted that in each of the past three years, the number of people entering the faith of any age has dropped below 1 million. Since 1947, the annual number of new U.S. Catholics has only come in at less than 1 million at one other time, and that was during the period from 1973 to 1979.
But infant baptisms are not the only area showing lower numbers. Less children, teens and adults are becoming Catholic as well.
Despite baptisms steadily increasing from 1997 to 2000, when they reached a peak of more than 170,000, researchers said that “something happened” that they can’t pinpoint.
In just one year, from 2000 to 2001, the number of non-infant entries into the Church fell by more than 20,000, down 12.6 %.
“This drop predates the emergence of news of clergy sex-abuse cases,” they noted. “In fact, the number of entries into the Church increased from 2001 to 2002 when these stories emerged in the media.”
From 2002 the number of new non-infant entries into the Church stabilized until 2006 and 2007, where another steep decline occurred. In 2007, there were 28,000 fewer non-infant entries into the Church than in 2005, which is a decrease of more than 19%.
“Since then, the decline has flattened out a bit, but still continues through to the numbers for 2010,” researchers added.
According to the center, as of 2011, there are more than 77 million self-identified Catholics in the U.S.
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Why doesn’t the Catholic Church respect the experience of the Catholic faithful and approve of the birth control methods that, while not ideal, are realistically all that work in their situation? Can the faithful be unaware of the possible influence of the hierarchy’s wanting more Catholics born, regardless of the will of the parents?
I’m not saying this couldn’t be taken at face value, but it contradicts my own experience. It makes sense that a falling fertility rate would mean less of everybody in general, and in some groups more so than others. But you don’t suppose maybe there has been a record-keeping issue?
“Well there you have it .. there is now a decline. People are turned off. Most of you all are all talk and no action to help families deal with this economic nightmare. It ticks me off no one is seriously helping families because many of them were told to be overextended and buy big houses.”
Why do I get the feeling you have “us” confused with a certain other demographic of a decidely political bent? I don’t think we tend to be the “well, idiot, sucks to be you” type.
My diocese opened a last-resort, cheap-rent housing complex. Some columnist had the gall to complain that this was “keeping the city poor” (consider its location in a historically fashionable part of town—‘we can’t have *that* *here*!’). You can’t win.
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Verification word reads “fiscal51.” :)
@savvy
Aren’t “nominal” Catholics just not bothering to be either practicing Catholics, and not interested enough in religion to officially leave the church? Will their children become another statistic of babies not being baptized?
Bones,
I think that depends on the priest. Some feel that there’s no point in baptizing kids if you are not going to raise them in the faith, others think you might still come back.
Scot,
They were nominal Catholics. My friend wanted a practising Catholic. I would want the same.
Have parishes adjusted their baptism policies?
My wife and I had an unpleasant experience baptizing our second son. The church we were registered parishioners of (and were married and confirmed) refused to baptize our son because we no longer resided in the immediate area. The priest in charge of baptisms wrote us 2 very callous letters - and adopted an extremely legalistic approach to the sacrament.
So I have to wonder, if you have a couple that’s nominally Catholic, are priests refusing to baptize them? Are they demanding baptismal documents from the parents?
David Carlon: I wonder where you get that figure of one-third of all abortions being sought by Catholics. A survey (Guttmacher, I think) I read several years ago estimated that 35% to 40% of all abortions are on Black women (very few Catholics there) and approx. one quarter to one-third are sought by non-believers and secularists. Hispanics did account for 20% or so and that group probably accounts for the bulk of Catholics seeking abortions. Catholics are 70% of Hispanics so we could assume that 14% to 15% of all abortions may occur among Catholics in that grouping. The abortion rate among white Christian females is somewhat below the national average. They accounted for at most one quarter of all abortions although making up some 70% of the female popultion.
“The recession in 2008?” I’m sorry, the recession may have begun in 2008, but it is far from over. I am not baptizing any babies because the one or two I could have had since I have been married have been delayed in coming. I’m pretty sure that barely being able to pay the bills is a “just” or “grave” reason to use NFP to delay pregnancy. We have discerned that it is important for us to be able to have a home to live in with our children. It’s not because we don’t want kids. The article said that the baptism rate was following the fertility rate, not that people were declining to baptize their newborns.
I am a God-father of a newly baptized Catholic infant and am not married. My sister and I are her god-parents, and my sister is not even Catholic. I am though, which I guess makes it alright.
These statistics are depressing. We need to evangelize more with baptism requests and new parishioners, especially if these parishioners are young with children. We need to evangelize and catechize the parents of the children in Faith Formation and religious education. Parent’s of all levels need to meet even if their children aren’t preparing for sacraments. For the parents that don’t show up at meetings, materials need to be sent home and/or emailed with a message of how we missed them at the meeting and how the meetings are not the same without them.
In my experience, the parishes that hire adult faith formation directors are thriving compared to those without.
We need social ministers in parishes also.
We need young adult ministry.
Too many parishes just do the bare minimum.
@ swavvy:
Why do you think your friend couldn’t find a practicing family member to be godparents? Could it be because other family members don’t want to be Catholic?
Scot,
A friend of mine could not find a practising family member to be godparents, and did not want someone who was not family. She got someone who lived in another country, and just filled in with paperwork.
It’s also parents being picky.
Apparently my proposed reasons were not accepted. I wrote it a while ago and I guess the editors don’t approve.
It’s either the economy and people are not having babies until times get better, or a generation who decided not to baptize their kids for whatever reason. Either way it says a lot.
Scot,
There are never ending excuses for those want them. We are all part of the church and we ALL have to play our part, not just wait for others to do so.
Someone once said, “The crisis of every age is the crisis of saints.”
I am blessed to be a able to belong to a Catholic parish that is young and alive and has a lot of baptism’s and converts each year.
I would add that in our community, about 2/3rds of those baptized here return 7 years later for First Communion (our classes regularly surpass 400 children). That’s a pretty good “retention” rate, especially accounting for the natural movement of peoples. At the time of baptism, we have classes for parents and godparents. And in sacramental years, we have adult ed for parents of children in catechesis. Mass attendance does decline during the summer, but we have found that is largely due to vacations in Mexico and, this summer, because of the bigoted anti-immigration law in Georgia. But Masses are overflowing now in all 6 Spanish Masses.
I’m all for having infants baptized. What concerns me is that far too many parents are seldom, if ever, practicing the faith to begin with. They also do not understand the meaning of godparents and sponsors. For far too many, it’s all symbolic and ceremonial and nothing more. The Church is right in requiring godparents to prove that they are registered in a parish, attend Mass on a regular basis, and receive the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist and have been confirmed. I do not think this is asking or expecting too much! With a proper education and understanding of what a ‘Christian Witness’ is when it comes to baptism,
I fail to understand why or how some parents insist on this. We really need to better educate our faithful. The problem is we have far too many school-year Catholics who then disappear until school re-opens. And what’s even more of a concern, so do their children!
A lot of hispanics choose to go to their country to baptize them. Here in the states sometimes they have too many rules and stuff.
SEE = ENCYCLICAL LETTER HUMANAE VITAE OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF PAUL VI. All this was foretold if we adopt a contraceptive mentality. Sadly when supposedly 95% of Catholics contracept, there is bound to be less children.
Abortions are dropping too. What I don’t understand is why someone hasn’t examined the use of the “MORNING AFTER PILL!”
“Properly catechised” is the phrase these people use over and over. I think it is the overemphasis on the outward proper and all about what we do and nothing about what God’s love is.
These lies about that no one teaches the faith is TOTAL TURN OFF. Properly married with a big wedding and proper baptism on the huge cake and large crowd and teaching yourself the faith in catechism homeschool while CLAIMING THEY ARE LOYAL TO THE MAGISTERIUM.
Well there you have it .. there is now a decline. People are turned off. Most of you all are all talk and no action to help families deal with this economic nightmare. It ticks me off no one is seriously helping families because many of them were told to be overextended and buy big houses.
So there you have it… the decline and the turn off that many are experiencing.
Maybe there are more agnostics and atheists than we think? Or maybe the Catholic Church as to clean up its act.
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I’m a Jew myself.
I know that I want to get my baby baptised in the Church as a new Catholic but I do not know any active and practising Catholics to choose anyone to be my baby’s Godparents. I do not know if my baby will get baptised any time soon.
We baptize 600+ children each year, and those numbers have been steady and rising since 2000.
This survey must not have included Hispanics.
http://www.facebook.com/sjccdalton
@ Mary. If it is really so important to the parent that their child be baptized in the Church, then they should be able to find sponsors that meet the Church’s guidelines (e.g. confirmed, practicing Catholic, or a non-Catholic “Christian witness”). My husband is the DRE for our parish and either he will act as a sponsor for a child that needs to be baptized that the parents can’t find a suitable sponsor for, or he finds someone else in the parish willing to do so. That parents can’t find an appropriate sponsor is a bad excuse. I’ve seen plenty of Catholic parents with one of their older children baptized and the younger one, about 2 or 3 years old, not baptized. Either they’re lazy or they don’t understand the importance of having their children baptized. The former are the ones that happen to not attend Mass regularly.
I have seen that the parents are not baptizing their children because they are not allowed to have sponsors that are not married by church. This has been the case of many people that I know. They do wish to have their children baptized, but that is the only reason that keeps them from doing it!
Yes. Thank you, David Carlon.
Hmm… do you think that perhaps, the fact that 1/3 of all abortions in this country are sought by Catholic women just might have an impact on infant baptisms? Or the culture of selfishness and self worship? Or that the United States and Europe, The West in general, is the Catholic locus of hypocrisy, indifference, debauchery and wickedness? The solution is simple… God is simple.
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