Catholic researchers have published a detailed new study of U.S. parishes in hopes of strengthening an increasingly complex church that is short on cash.
Based on reams of data from national polls and surveys of Catholics, their new book, “Catholic Parishes of the 21st Century,” investigates, among other trends, the church's changing demographics, the continued decline in the number of priests and the rise in lay ecclesial ministers.
The Rev. Thomas P. Gaunt, director of the Washington-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and a co-author of the book, sums up its findings: “It's the geography, stupid.”
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