“We ask about many things. But there is a particular question that the philosophers call the question after being. It is the inquiry, not on this or that particular state of affairs, rather into the meaning of it all. What is it all about? The Christian answer to that question is love. For love is what God is.”
Robert Barron, Catholicism
We live in an era when religious identity is not stable but remarkably fluid. According to the Pew Forum, the largest growing religious segment is the “NONES,” individuals who say they are not affiliated with any religious group or tradition. Yet Christianity is still the most widely practiced of the world’s major religions, with followers in every corner of the globe.
Far beyond its historic heartlands in Europe and the Near East, it has been embraced by hundreds of millions of people in the Americas, Africa, Oceana, and Asia. Christianity has been the backbone of Western civilization for almost two millennia, and it is difficult to understand the modern world and how it came into existence without appreciating the crucial part played in the process by the enduring and influential teachings, culture, and institutions of the Christian Churches.[1]
Christians are diverse theologically as well as geographically. A Pew Forum study finds that half of all Christians are Catholic. Protestants, broadly defined, make up 37%. Orthodox Christians comprise 12% of Christians worldwide. Other Christians, such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, make up the remaining 1% of the global Christian population. Taken as a whole, however, Christians are by far the world’s largest religious group. Muslims, the second-largest group, make up a little less than a quarter of the world’s population, according to previous studies by the Pew Forum.[2]
What does this all mean? A lot of things if you are searching for answers. Within a plurality of Christian denominations, we hope to offer you insights not only why people choose to be Christian, but why they choose to practice their Christianity as a Catholic.
You might begin your information quest at the Seeking Answers page, where one of the foremost communicators on the Catholic Church, Bishop Robert Barron, answers some of the top questions on the Catholicism; or possibly explore why others have become Catholic at our Why Catholicism page; or maybe you would like to delve into the rich history of Catholicism on Catholic Things page where we look at aspects of the Catholic faith with noteworthy commentators like Father Mike Schmitz; or lastly, you might want to peruse what is currently being seen and/or discussed in the world of all things Catholic at our What’s Happening page.
Whatever you are looking for in the realm of Catholicism, we hope this site will be of assistance as you explore what makes up the Catholic Faith.
[1] Hillerbrand, Hans Joachim. Christianity: the illustrated history: church and society, culture and civilization, sacred art and architecture. London: Duncan Baird Publishers, 2008.
[2] The Pew Forum, Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population, accessed on July 20, 2017 (http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/)