I have to say as prelude to the comments that follow, I am surprised at the fire storm I seem to have created! Many seem to presume I am making light of the current decline by citing them. I am not and have blogged too much of the need for reform and evangelization for people to conclude this. Hence I must conclude that the commenters who conclude this about me either don’t read here often, don’t know me, or are just doing a knee-jerk reaction that is anxious of any data that doesn’t support some narrative they have.
My real point here in quoting the stats is just that I find them interesting and that they provide a perspective. As I state in the article, the first half of the 20th century was a period of explosive growth for the Church. But even in 1950 the number of priests overall was not as high as many of us remember. There are probably a lot of reasons for this, including the number of ethnic parishes, and the degree of Catholics in rural areas, etc. Clearly after 1950 the number spiked, almost doubling in number by 1960. And then began a steady decline.
That is all. I surely do not “celebrate” or “excuse” the decline as some of the commentors who follow suggest I do. That is crazy. I want the Church to keep growing and burst at the seams. However we do well to keep perspective, lest we lose heart, that the Church has had spikes and declines, but God is with us and the Church is indefectible. We need to work, but we need to trust God. There are many causes for the decline. Doing the “blame game” doesn’t help that much, especially in the complicated landscape of modern “culture” But we’ve got God and that ain’t bad odds!
Perhaps all of us try to be a little more encouraging than blaming. We’re on the same team and our internal bickering and blaming takes our eye of the ball and our opponent, the devil gets yardage. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the higher realms.(Eph 6:12)
Clearly, we needed change in the church.
/sarcasm.
Well, my modest parish, probably about a quarter of the size of a typical suburban parish, has three priests.
But, then again, it only offers the traditional latin mass.
> Last year there was an average of one priest per parish. Welcome to 1950.<
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But aren’t there fewer parishes today than there were in 1950 when so many parishes have closed their doors since then?
Oddly enough, the calander this year matches the calander from 1957.