Catholic Counties (Or, As They Call Them In Loo-zee-ana, “Parishes”)

Down yonder a reader points us to a map of where the Catholics are by county. Here ’tis:

Catholiccounties

Click the image to enlarge.

SOURCE.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

14 thoughts on “Catholic Counties (Or, As They Call Them In Loo-zee-ana, “Parishes”)”

  1. Interesting map. If you superimpose it on
    the red-blue election map, other than maybe
    northern Maine, central Pennsylvania, the
    “lower” peninsula of Michigan and northwest
    California, it kinda shows that the areas
    with the highest proportion of Catholics
    were the blue states.

  2. Some people want to say that the Catholic vote in swing states was “decisive.” On the other hand, I suspect that Catholics in more conservative places like Ohio tend to be influenced by their conservative protestant neighbors. The one state where catholics are the majority (RI) is quite liberal.
    Catholics like to say that Protestantism is the cause of secularization, but that hasn’t been the case in the US.

  3. Two things intrigue me:
    1. How did the county in western Alaska get so many catholics? Was it some good missionary work among the native americans?
    2. Although Maryland was founded by Catholics, the state’s catholic percentage is now small.
    Like other Christians, a better indication of voting patterns would be Catholics who attend church weekly compared to those who attend church at only Christmas and Easter.

  4. Loo-zee-ana
    Jimmy, I can tell you are more familiar with north Louisiana. Lou-zee-ana is a localized way of saying it, unless you are singing Lousiana Saturday Night and then you have to eek it out that way. Most of us in the civilized southern portion of the state pronounce it the right way … 🙂
    I like north Louisiana though … enough so that I spent my college years there.

  5. This map makes no sense whatsoever.
    How does South Florida get “No Catholic Reported”? I belong to the Archdiocese of Miami! If anything, we’re the majority down here (Although most of Florida itself is Bapist)!
    Something’s screwey.

  6. Eric: This may be a monitor problem. I’m not seeing counties in south Florida that are white (no Catholics reported), I’m seeing some light blue ones (10-25% Catholic).
    Ggoose: My family is from South Texas (my father) and Deep East Texas (my mother). The family ranch is in the Piney Woods, about 20 miles from the border with (northern) Louisiana, so I do indeed say “Lou-zee-ana.”
    I also say “Mizz-zou-rah,” based on the way my ma and pa learned me to say it.

  7. There appear to be some “white” (ha ha) counties on the Florida panhandle, but South Florida is all light blue.
    Catholics like to say that Protestantism is the cause of secularization, but that hasn’t been the case in the US.
    I think it is correct to say that Protestantism is the cause of secularization, but not Protestants, if you get my meaning. Catholics in the U.S. who are secularized seem to be corrupted by Protestant ideas about Church and State and liberty of conscience. (I say “liberty” instead of “freedom” because there’s nothing wrong with “freedom of conscience” when “freedom” is understood as the ability to do good, rather than the ability to do whatever.)

  8. On the Alaska question – I believe that dark blue area in the west (I’m not sure ‘county’ is the right term in this case) is where the town of Nome is. They have KNOM, a noncommerical community radio station that is owned by the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska. The station has a website at http://www.knom.org

  9. To continue my thought from the previous post — radiolocator.com shows that there are only 4 major radio stations in Nome, and 2 of them are KNOM (FM/AM). The other two are KICY FM/AM, a Protestant station. The KNOM website mentions an impressive amount of awards that the station has won.
    So I would guess that the popularity and awards that KNOM have garnered over the years have also helped spread the faith there.

  10. For accuracy’s sake – I should mention that an NPR station has a translator antenna in the Nome area. Just looked that up on radio-locator.com as well.

  11. So I would guess that the popularity and awards that KNOM have garnered over the years have also helped spread the faith there.
    It doesn’t hurt that the Patroness of Northern Alaska is St. Therese of Liseux.

  12. Gaaaaaaah, I messed up. Nome is on the next peninsula to the north of that dark blue whatever.
    To get it right this time, I looked at the map of missions from the Diocese of Fairbanks’ official website, http://www.cbna.info.
    There are a LOT of missions in that dark blue area!!
    Link to map

  13. Western Alaska has a variety of religions. It largely separates out according to what missionaies reached a village first.
    Nome has a bit of everything with various Protestant faiths in the majority, though a strong Catholic population. Many coastal villages are heavily Catholic and KNOM started out to reach them but has morphed into a very general public service non-commercial outlet with zero on-air fundraising. KICY is owned by The Evangelical Covenant Church. There are several predominantly EC villages but their powerul AM mostly is aimed toward a Russian audience and is heavily commercial-religion for that market. The KICY-FM is targeted toward the city of Nome, itself, with contemporary Christian programming.
    KNOM-FM simulcasts the AM, and covers only the immediate Nome area. The AM is heavily processed for distance and, frankly, sounds bad. Hence the FM, to provide excellent audio where reach is not the primary factor.

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