Recruitment and Retention

Getting folks into the Sheepfold is just half the battle. Losing Catholics to other religions has been talked about a lot since the Pew study from early last year.

The news isn't all bad, though. From EWTN:

A new survey of denominational loyalty reports that churchgoing Catholics are significantly less likely than churchgoing Protestants to change denominations.

Six out of ten active Catholics would only consider attending a Catholic church, while about 30 percent would prefer attending a Catholic church but would consider others, the survey says. Eleven percent of churchgoing Catholics reportedly do not show a specific preference for attending a Catholic church.

By contrast, only 16 percent of Protestant churchgoers will only consider attending a church of their present denomination. About 51 percent express a preference for one denomination, while 33 percent do not have any preference for a specific denomination.

It's still not all roses and rainbows, either. You've still got 40% of Catholics saying they would consider converting away from the Church. This is another indication of a belief built on feelings rather than actual Faith. Not good, but at least it isn't the picture we got last year of folks leaving in droves.