A Look at Current Religious Traditions in Montco

The United States was founded on the principle that citizens should not be forced to practice one religion—we have freedom of choice.

As people immigrated to the United States, they brought their religious backgrounds with them creating a melting pot of different traditions.

Montgomery County reflects our nation as a whole, with a strong Christian tradition, but unlike the United States, which has a majority of Evangelical Protestants, Montgomery County comprises a majority of Catholics.

According to a 2009 demographic study on socialexplorer.com, of the portion of the county who belong to a religious institution, about 18 percent belong to Catholic churches.

Father Gus Puleo, pastor of , and Pastor Ron Lutz, of the New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, attribute the high Catholic population to immigration in our area.

Historically, Montgomery County has large populations of Irish and Italian immigrants, both of whom are traditionally Catholic, Puleo said.

Puleo attributes Norristown's Catholic majority to the large Latino population.

“They stay with the religion as they come in,” Puleo said.

According to the study, the average membership per each Catholic congregation is 2,461 members. Puleo said with his church, it’s hard to tell how many members he really he has.

He said in the Mexican Catholic tradition, most followers do not become members of a specific church. Instead, they just attend the services.

“My church is jam packed every Sunday,” Puleo said, but said he his membership numbers wouldn’t accurately reflect how many people regularly attend his sermons. 

Pastor Lutz said his church exceeds the study’s average of 334 members per Presbyterian congregations with five to six hundred members attending New Life Presbyterian Church.

According to the study, mainline Protestants make up 11.1 percent of the residents in Montgomery County who are members of a religious institution. This includes Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ and others. Presbyterians account for 4.3 percent of the members.

Lutz said the number seemed accurate to him and attributed the larger Catholic population to the large numbers of Irish and Italian immigrants who originally emigrated to Montgomery County. He said German immigrants were another large group to come to Pennsylvania, and they were split between Catholic and Protestant.

“Those numbers are pretty directly related to the immigration patterns over the years and the continuation of those traditions in those families,” Lutz said.

He said when people first migrated to the United States to practice their religious, many groups went to Italian- and Irish-speaking churches, and it was the same with Protestant Norwegian, German and Swedish churches.

Lutz said people worshiped together according to ethnic backgrounds because many people’s culture and religion are tied closely together. 

St. Patrick’s is doing the same thing today.

At St. Patrick’s, Puleo said he has two communities at the church: an Anglo community and a Mexican community. To compensate for both, Puleo said two of his services are given in English, and three are given in Spanish.

“What’s great is that everyone gets along very well,” Puleo said. “It’s a very welcoming place, which is why people come. They feel comfortable.”

Montgomery County is also home to other religious traditions. According to the study, Jewish congregations make up 4.2 percent of the religious institutions, and Buddhist make up .1 percent. While the county has Islamic and Hindu institutions, their numbers weren’t significant in the 2009 study.