Hispanic immigration is driving the Catholic church in America

Catholics in Texas

Nov 1st 2007 
From The Economist print edition

LAST week Trinity Church, near Dallas, staged its annual "Hell House". The production dramatised "real life situations" such as being controlled by demons. With entertainments like this, it is not surprising that Protestants are the most visible religious group in Texas. But they are not its largest. That honour goes to the state's Catholics: 6.5m of them in Texas today, up from 3m 20 years ago.

Hispanic immigration is driving the growth of the Catholic church in America, particularly in the south-west. According to an April 2007 report from the Pew Hispanic Centre, a third of Catholics in America are Hispanic. Yet most of the country's dozen cardinals are clustered on the east coast. The south-west has never had one though there has long been one in Los Angeles. On November 24th that will change.…