According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, there are about 4,200 Catholic churches in the United States where weekly attendance is at least 2,000. This perhaps comes as a surprise to those who thought megachurches were exclusively the domain of evangelicals. Then again, megaparishes and megachurches aren’t quite the same thing — the former is driven by a growing Catholic population that must contend with parish closures and mergers. The latter is driven, usually, by a charismatic leader.
For more on this distinction, see the graphic below. And then check out this map from The Washington Post — using data from the Hartford Institute and the Leadership Network — that shows the global rise of the megachurch.
[Dawn Cherie Araujo is Global Sisters Report staff writer, based in Kansas City, Missouri. Follow her on Twitter @dawn_cherie]