Why are there more poor Catholics then Mormons?Religion?

Question

Considering the Catholics religion has been around for centuries and have built an industry and business on being Cathlioc.
And the Mormons religon happens to be a baby compared to Catholic religion? I am not any denomitation but curious. And in my area I have observed it.

Answer 1

I can think of a couple reasons.

1. The Catholic Church welcomes everybody, not just people who look and act in certain ways. That's why Catholic parishes are multi-ethnic as well as multi-demographic (i.e., people of all ages, incomes, professions, etc.)

2. There is an emphasis on stockpiling material goods in the LDS religion that is non-existent in the Catholic faith. If you teach people they have to stockpile goods, then they automatically have a focus on acquisitions and the income to get those acquisitions.

3. Catholics don't have a "name it and claim it" or "prosperity" theology. I don't know if the LDS does or doesn't, but if they do, that's another difference.

Answer 2

Because Catholic countries, like Spain, were colonizing new world countries like small Caribbean islands andSouth America, and brought Catholicism to those areas. Catholicism was also brought to Mexico. While there are lots of rich Catholics in Mexico, the general population is quite poor, but it has nothing to do with Catholicism. South America as a continent has made some economic strides, but their general populations are still quite poor. Except for tourism, islands don't have much economic opportunity, so some of those people will remain poor.

But a person's religion does not usually indicate what their income will be.

Years ago, Catholics were sometimes denied educational opportunities as well as jobs, which would obviously result in poverty - but this was imposed upon them by bigots.

In the town where I live, Catholics aren't poor. Catholic private schools, which are excellent and competitive to enter, charge tuition upwards of $14,000.00 per student, and some families have up to 4 or 5 kids attending. So I guess if THEY are poor - it's because they are shelling out private school tuition!

I don't know much about too many Mormons so I don't want to speculate.

Worldwide, though, Catholicism represents the entire range of income levels from the poorest of the poor to the super-rich (the actor Mel Gibson comes to mind).

Answer 3

Pastor Billy says: fact is both Mormonism and Catholicism are classified (attacked) by fundamentalist (evangelicals) as not part of Christianity. Catholicism is in fact first Christianity from which all Protestantism originates and currently Catholics are in a period of new evangelisation. After years and years of persecution, slander and propaganda by so-called "true Christians" the Lion has awoken.

By far Catholicism outnumbers Mormonism . The world census of 2005 had total Catholics worldwide listed at 1.2 billion with 37,000 new members each day. It is a fallacy to believe more Catholics are fallening away than entering the Church but this fallacy does exist and I suppose there are those who wish to believe it so as to support their ideas of protest.

view some of my other questions and answers


addendum: for Shelly, America was not founded as a tolearant nation by Protestants. Catholics under Protestant rule could not own land or vote and they were not given equal status under the law. BTW America was founded by Spanish Catholics long before English Protestants made it to shore. Look to the Spanish missions of California or the Spanish forts of Florida. America under the Puritans is northeastern US was extremely anti-Catholic

Answer 4

Here's the deal. First, there's a lot more Catholics than there are Mormons. Second, there's more Mormons (majority in Latin America and Africa) than there are in the United States. Contrary to public belief, there's probably more ethnic minorities than there are caucasian LDS members.

Although there's a lot of Catholics in third world countries, there's a lot of Mormons also. Therefore its hard to say because of the number discrepancy and the difficulty to get such data, which one is poorer, and there are poorer Catholics than Mormons.

Answer 5

There are more Catholics.

There are over 1,000,000,000 Roman Catholics in the world. Mormonism is mostly restricted to the USA, with very small communities outside the USA. People in the USA are richer.

Answer 6

Well.. this is just an educated guess, and there should be no racism read into it or bashing of any religion..

I think it may have to do with the fact that Mormons tend to be white, and most of your catholics are minorities (hispanic, etc..) There's nothing wrong with either religion OR any race, but the fact is that alot of minorities tend to be in the lower classes.. they just don't have as much money..

America was founded as a protestant (but tolearant) nation, and Catholocism was pretty much in the minority.. However, in countries like Mexico.. EVERYONE almost is Catholic.. So alot of the immigrants from Mexico are Catholic.. But your majority of typical white Americans are Protestant.. Hence.. most of your Catholics are hispanic or other minorities..which tend to be poorer..

That's just my thoughts..

Answer 7

Maybe because Catholics don't preach being prosperous, but giving to others, compared to the other religions. And have a look at places like Iraq, call them rich?

Answer 8

Catholics understand that there is more to life than money and sex.

The real reward never happens here on earth. Maybe it's a sign of what the Mormons have in store?

Answer 9

Consider that there are way more catholics than mormons, and that you have not done any real statistics on what the relative percentages are for a realistic set.

I'd say that you can not draw any conclusion from your observation.

Answer 10

This may be true in the US but not in Europe, at least not any more. For example the Catholic parts of Germany are richer than the Protestant parts. Catholic Ireland is now one of the richest countries in the world (per head of population). Catholic Austria is also very prosperous.

Historically Catholics engaged in "negative eugenics" by insisting that priests couldn't marry. Since priests were often the brightest people around, it meant that the genes for intelligence tended to be eliminated from the population. Now with the decline in vocations that doesn't happen so much.