Catholic Church in Decline in Canada?

I'm re-posting this from my other blog, "Imagine," which I'm deleting. 

There seem to be two fairly strong (and false) ideas present in Canada these days.  One is that Christianity is loosing footing among the younger generation; the other is that the Catholic Church, along with other traditional churches, is in even greater decline than Christianity as a whole, loosing numbers in droves to more contemporary churches and atheism.  I would argue that both of these ideas are based in manipulation of numbers to give the illusion of decline, presumably to suggest a lack of integrity or relevance.

Consider these stats about Catholicism and Christianity in Canada:

About Catholics:

• The population of Catholics in Canada between 1991 and 2001 GREW 4.5%, which is less than the population growth of 9.8% but nevertheless significant growth.
  
• In strict numerical terms Catholics grew by almost 600,000 - a number larger than the population of most cities in Canada.  Interestingly enough most "statistical" articles (including Stats Canada) present this as a decline.  How does growth of 600,000 people represent decline?
  
• By actual numbers (i.e. not percentages), Catholic growth outdid the #2 Christian group by over 5 times.

About Orthodox:

• Interestingly, the #2 group (in terms of straight numerical growth) was Orthodox Christians who grew by 107,000.
  
• The numerical growth of Orthodox is phenomenal when seen as a percentage; it was by far the highest percentage growth with 28%.

The only exception is "Christian, not included elsewhere" which grew by 110%; this stat can't be compared in itself since it refers to all miscellaneous groups, rather than one single group.  However, it's important to note a few points.

• One is that numerical growth in this "misc" category (425,000) was still well below that of Catholics.
  
• Another is that I believe this growth reflects the rise of many new, smaller denominations, and also the ever more popular non-denominational movement.
  
• Finally, it shows the fact that Christians in Canada are not so much abandoning their religion, but rather changing denominations or moving to a non-denominational concept (I think I read an article pointing this out about the U.S.)

Five months ago, I thought I was joining a church in sharp numerical decline, especially in a country like Canada, only to find out the exact opposite is true.  As these stats show, it's simply absurd to claim that all traditional churches are in numerical decline in Canada. Some traditional Protestant groups are definitely in numerical decline (for example, Anglicans and Lutherans), but  Catholics and Orthodox definitely aren’t.

Just to be clear, I don't believe that size, growth, or lack of either are necessarily important indicators of a church's integrity; I don’t believe that being “big” or “small” is any reflection of a church’s integrity.  I am presenting these statistics only to show that the idea is false that the most traditional churches are in numerical decline, and that this imagined decline indicates some faulty approach or lack of ability to connect with the current generation.

However, I do believe that these stats show the beginning of an important and positive shift in Canadian Christianity.

My next post will be about the role of immigrants in this pattern.

Stats from: Statistics Canada, 2001 Census