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"The dwindling number of parishioners was much more severe pre-V2 than the church is facing now "

I would like to see your evidence for this statement. It contradicts everything I have seen.

"Are you Catholic? Were you? If you are or were, I cannot fathom how you would think that the RCC was/is growing slower 'after' Vat2 than before .."

I think we must live in two different universes.

Count the numbers of priests, nuns, converts, fallen-away folks, closed churchs and schools, new churchs and schools percentage who attend weekly Mass etc. etc. etc.

I cannot fathom how you would think that the RCC was/is growing slower 'after' Vat2 than before .."
I think we must live in two different universes.

Count the numbers of priests, nuns, converts, fallen-away folks, closed churchs and schools, new churchs and schools percentage who attend weekly Mass etc. etc. etc.

True ... and also count the number of deacons, eucaristic ministers, etc. that are making it so the church gets by on fewer priests, etc.

The point is not the 'troubles' that they church is currently now having, the point is that Vatican2 didn't cause them!! Do you really think that there would be as many Catholics as you have today if the church would have stayed in Latin with the priest not facing the parishioners, etc.? Guess we will never know, but my money is on the belief that the RCC would be competing in numbers with the Greek Orthodox in this country and not any where near it's present size.

Going back to pre-Vatican2 is NOT going to reverse the troubles you are listing ... moving Vatican 2 forward might!

Further source info of noted growth ... and I am sure the growth would be much more if the priests scandals would not have occured, and much less if Vatican II did not occur:

"The worldwide Catholic population reached 1.06 billion at the end of 2001, an increase of nearly 1 percent from the previous year.

The number of baptized Catholics in the world had grown from 757 million in 1978 to 1.06 billion at the end of 2001. The greatest growth has been in Africa, where the number of Catholics increased 148 percent since 1978. Significant increases also have occurred in Asia, the Americas and Oceania, while the number of European Catholics has remained about the same over that period."

source