Immigrants will keep the Church alive

Regina's Catholic Family Services director says Church demographics are changing

David Sax

The B.C. Catholic has a story by the Prairie Messenger about a lecture describing the changing demographics of the Church:

Immigration from non-European countries in Asia, Africa and Central American Catholic countries is what will keep the Catholic Church alive and vibrant, said the Archdiocese of Regina's Catholic Family Services Society executive director David Sax. Sax delivered this year’s Reidy lecture Oct. 23 at St. Martin’s Church.

Quoting census statistics and his own research, Sax described how society and families are changing and specifically how changes are affecting the Roman Catholic Church. Regular church attendance has dropped and is now estimated at about 14 - 18 per cent, more and more Catholics are marrying non-Catholics, and the majority of children attending Catholic schools do not have families that regularly attend church. These are just a few of the changes he described.

Overall, society is changing much more rapidly than in the past and will continue to change. He described how in a little over 100 years society has changed from a horse and buggy, outhouse, no electronics or any modern conveniences to one of cars, airplanes, indoor plumbing, mass media and instant communications systems, among other things.

“The world was transformed and so was the lifestyle and perceptions of how the world worked.”

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.