"A decimation is occurring in the American Church, one that cannot be denied. Although the number of Catholics has nominally grown, the Church is bleeding out across the United States.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, while self-identified Catholics have grown from 48 million in 1965 to 76 million in 2014, sacramental life is decreasing. Baptisms have been halved since 1965, from 1.3 million infant baptisms to fewer than 700,000 in 2015.
Confirmations are down. First Communions are down. Marriages have dropped more than 50 percent. All of this is occurring in a time period where the U.S. population has jumped from under 200 million to over 300 million.
The total number of priests in the United States is down 20,000 from 1965, even though the population has jumped up by over 100 million. The drop-off is primed to accelerate, as priests are dying but ordinations are down by 50 percent.
Replacing them are "lay professional ministers" and "lay ecclesial ministers," who have doubled from 10,000 each in 1995 to around 20,000 in 2015.
In the same period, religious sisters have been decimated, shrinking by almost 75 percent in 40 years. This drastic fall is only going to get steeper, as the average age for a nun is over 60. In the next 20 years the attrition rate will climb exponentially. ...
It's clear to anyone that the current situation is unsustainable. The Church in America has already gone over the cliff. It's only a matter of time before impact."
Read : http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/the-downloadmathematics-of-defeat.
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