May 3, 2010
Catholic Marriage Numbers
Here are some interesting stats that recently caught my attention:

Number of U.S. Catholics: 68,115,001 in 2009
Number of Catholic marriages in U.S. in 2009: 191,265

Now here's the kicker: Despite the fact that there are 20 million more Catholics in the U.S. than there were 35 years ago, the number of Catholic marriages has dropped to less than 200,000 per year. This is about half the number performed in 1975 (when I was two years ordained).

So if you expressed the marriage stats in a the form of a pie, here's what you have:
(2009)
34% - married in church
3 % - married, not in church, but convalidated or blessed.
16 % - married, not in the church nor convalidated.
12 % - divorced
5 % - widowed
4 % - living with a partner
25 % - never married

There are only 14 marriages scheduled for the present calendar year in this parish.

Pax et Bonum