BishopAccountability.org
	Study Documents "Supersizing" of Catholic Parish Life Georgetown University July 22, 2011 http://cara.georgetown.edu/NewsandPress/newsandpress.html [press release] July 15, 2011: Washington, DC —In the last decade, the numbers of Catholic priests and Catholic parishes have declined in number, but the scale of parish life in the United States has expanded along with the nation's growing Catholic population. Bigger parishes, more Masses, and ministries in languages other than English are becoming the norm. This is one of many new findings from the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project that will be released July 18, 2011 in the first report, The Changing Face of U.S. Catholic Parishes, from its ongoing landmark study of parish life. The report details the findings from the first phase of the study, a 2010 national survey of pastors and other parish leaders at 846 randomly selected U.S. parishes. The report will be available at: www.emergingmodels.org The survey documents changes in parish life as the U.S. Catholic Church has downsized its number of parishes in recent years. In the last decade, through a combination of closing and mergers, U.S. Catholic Church leaders have reduced the number of parishes in the United States by 1,359 (a decline of 7.1 percent). In 2000, the Church had more than 19,000 parishes nationally and by decadeaˆ™s end it had fewer than 17,800, almost the same number it had in 1965.
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