1. Priests. While the number of priests in the United States more than doubled to 58,000 between 1930 and 1965, since then the number has fallen to 45,000. By 2020, there will be only 31,000 left, and more than half of those will be OVER the age of 70.
2. Ordinations. In 1965, 1,575 new priests were ordained in the United States. In 2002, the number had fallen to a whopping 450.
3. Seminarians. Between 1965 and 2002, the number of seminarians dropped from 49,000 to 4,000. A decline of over 90 percent. Of the 600 seminaries that were open in the U.S. in 1965, two thirds have since CLOSED!
4. Sisters. In 1965 there were 180,000 Catholic nuns in the U.S. By 2002, that number had fallen to 75,000 and the average age was 68. In 1965 there were 104,000 teaching nuns. Today there are 8,200, a decline of 94% since the end of the Second Vatican Council.
5. Religious Orders. For religious orders in America, the end is in sight. in 1965, 3,559 young men were studying to become Jesuits. In 2000, the figure was 389. Things are even worse for The Christian Brothers. Their number has shrunk by two-thirds, with the number of seminarians falling 99%. In 1965 there were 912 seminarians for The Christian Brothers. Sadly... in 2000, there were only seven. That's right... SEVEN!! The number of young men studying to become Fransiscans and Redemptorists fell from 3,379 in 1965 to 84 in 2000.
6. Catholic Schools. Almost half of all Catholic High Schools in the U.S. have since closed since 1965. The student population has fallen from 700,000 to 386,000. Parochial schools have suffered even worse. Some 4,000 have shut down, and the number of pupils has fallen from 4.5 million to just under 2 million.
Hmmmmm..... I wonder why The Church just doesn't pony up some cash to re-open some of these shut down schools. Oh, that's right!!! Millions and millions in court settlements because 80% of the "Catholic" bishops in America protect rapist "priests" (as reported by the Dallas Morning News). And I almost forgot... it was recently exposed that "Archbishop" Rembert Weakland paid out $450,000 in hush money to his boyfriend (as reported in the National Review and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.)
Speaking of Catholic Schools...
Last June a Catholic campus watchdog group, the Cardinal Newman Society (cardinalnewmansociety.org), reported that students at Providence College in Rhode Island were complaining about three "sex classes" taught by assistant professor of sociology James Moorhead. The young people said the classes included graphic, offensive discussions that contradicted Church doctrines. Recent Providence graduate Racheal D'Ambrosia alleged she was taught that "adultery is an integral part of any marriage," "marriages are meant to end in divorce," men should fornicate freely, "Catholicism is 'patriarchal bull---t,'" and other errors.
Two years ago, assistant professor of psychology Ed de St. Aubin (a non-Catholic) taught a human sexuality class at Marquette University in which he promoted contraception, contrary to Church teaching.
Georgetown University's campus newspaper, The Hoya, features "Sex on the Hilltop," an explicit how-to column on sex, by student Julia Baugher. Her column often urges students to fornicate.
Dozens of Catholic campuses (among hundreds of other schools) have hosted "The Vagina Monologues," a foul-mouthed, radical-feminist play that glorifies sexual immorality, including the lesbian rape of a young teen girl. These schools include Fordham, Boston College, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Loyola (Chicago), St. Thomas, Creighton, and the University of San Francisco.
Seton Hall University School of Law hired former Clinton Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, an outspoken abortion advocate, to welcome students arriving in August.
Paul Lauritzen, professor of Religious Studies at John Carroll University, testified in a report to the July meeting of President Bush's Council on Bioethics that human embryos are not persons, and that embryonic stem cell experiments should proceed. He criticized the Church's insistence that laws should respect the embryo as "a human subject with a well-defined identity."
UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute surveyed 7,200 students at 38 Catholic colleges. The results, released last March by the Cardinal Newman Society and Catholic World Report, showed that in 1997, 27.5% of the Catholic freshmen thought fornication was "all right;" four years later, as seniors, 48% thought it permissible. As freshmen, 37.9% favored legalized abortion. Four years later, 51.7% did.
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