______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

More than thirty million Americans, over 10% of the U.S. population consider themselves former Catholics. Young adults are alarmingly abandoning the Church, over 70% of American Catholics do not attend Sunday Mass, and only 17% attend every Sunday.

In the U.S., the number of Catholic weddings has tragically decreased,  in the past twenty years we have closed over three thousand parishes and a Catholic school every four days, and many parishes and dioceses are in serious financial trouble.

Our planning at the national and diocesan levels focuses the challenge of a shrinking Church, like in Europe.  England is the bright light in Western Europe — Catholicism is the dominant religion again since King Henry VIII and the Reformation.

______________________________________________________________