Survey: More Catholics Than Methodists at SMU

Catholics outnumber Methodists and all other religious groups at Southern Methodist University, according to the results of a survey question about faith among students.

This fall, 1,425 SMU students identified themselves as Catholics, nearly 200 more than those who identified themselves as United Methodists. The Catholic total represents about 25 percent of those who registered a religious preference, according to the survey.

The survey is not scientific and based only on results from students who answered its questions.

SMU is owned by the United Methodist Church, and the school's top chaplain must be a United Methodist pastor. The university's Perkins School of Theology is a leading producer of clergy for the denomination.

William Lawrence, the dean of the theology school, said Catholicism's strength at SMU is a testament to the work of early Methodists in founding colleges and welcoming those of other denominations.

"It was somewhere in the Methodist DNA to do that," Lawrence said in a story in The Dallas Morning News. "It was, in effect, a service to the larger society."