Why Catholicism is booming in Beaufort County

While Catholic parishes across the country struggle to maintain church attendance, Catholicism in South Carolina is on the rise.

Catholics account for about 10 percent of the state’s population, according to the most recent statistics, but the number of people going to church across the state is increasing.

According to the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, which includes all of South Carolina, church attendance in the state grew from 164,808 in 2007 to 201,671 in 2016, a 22 percent increase. The most dramatic growth was seen in around Rock Hill and Beaufort counties, The Charleston Post and Courier reported.

Church leaders in South Carolina attribute the growth to Catholics moving from traditionally Catholic northeastern states to the warmer climates of the Southeast, either for jobs or retirement, the newspaper reported.

In Beaufort County, the Lowcountry Deanery is seeing an influx of retirees joining parishes.

Monsignor Ronald Cellini, head of the deanery and pastor of the Parish of St. Gregory in Bluffton, told The Post and Courier that he registers 15 to 20 new families every week.

Bluffton was not traditionally a Catholic enclave. But thanks to all the newcomers, the parish is getting ready to add an eighth mass to its weekend schedule.

“We take care of the retirees and all the young professionals and other people who take care of them,” Cellini told the Post and Courier. “So we have a mixed parish: We have senior citizens, physicians and gardeners or construction workers, and young people who run hospitals.”

While the retirees are largely from the Northeast, flocking to new communities such as Sun City near Bluffton, Cellini told the newspaper that his parish has also added a Spanish-language mass to serve a growing Mexican-American community.

“My father was Italian, I’m Italian-American, and the next generation is just American. It’s just a process,” Cellini said. “Bluffton is a completely new culture. It’s different. The dynamics of the community have changed.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Why Catholicism is booming in Beaufort County."