Results tagged “catholics”

The Boston Globe breathlessly reports that a Marshfield man was miraculously healed by a Catholic cardinal who died 100 years ago, once again making the case that journalistic standards will not stand in the way of their printing a completely idiotic story.

Get Religion reports that Connecticut legislators have introduced a bill that would completely reorganize the archdiocese of Connecticut. Raised Bill 1098 would eliminate diocesan control over Church finances, shifting it to boards of directors, organized at the parish level. The bishop would be relegated to a non-voting ex-officio position on the board of each parish. Some speculate that the bill is retaliation for the Church's opposition to gay marriage; others point to financial shenanigans among some of Connecticut's parishes. There is one thing that the bill almost certainly is: unconstitutional. [Hartford Courant; Get Religion]

First there was the NPR listener support drive, then the Girl Scout cookies appeared. Now it's time for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to start their annual fund drive, in which they hope to raise $15 million without giving away so much as a tote bag or a box of chocolate-covered Eucharists.

Whether as a result of Catholicism's opposition to condoms and beer pong or for another reason, the Catholic population in New England is decreasing, particularly in Massachusetts, as Catholics increase in the southwest. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, 54 percent of Bay Staters self-identified as Catholic in 1990; in 2008, the amount went down to 39 percent. Rather than adopting new religions, these folks seem to now identify as secular, following a larger trend: just 8.2 percent of Americans claimed "no religion" in 1990; 15 percent of the country is non-religious today. Vermont is 34% religionless, the highest in the nation.