Church Decline

“The church of Notre Dame itself may soon perhaps be erased from the earth.” ~~Victor Hugo, Notre Dame of Paris, 1831. Victor Hugo’s 1831 warning that Notre Dame might “soon ...

The Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota announced that seven parishes will cease celebrating Sunday Mass in the coming months due to factors including a shortage of priests, lack of young ...

We welcome Hunter Swogger, President of Intentional Disciples Saginaw, the largest young adult Catholic organization in mid-Michigan, to discuss why some parishes inspire lasting faith while others struggle to engage ...

The Titanic is an image of confidence after collision. That is the present Church. The postconciliar structure still speaks in the voice of authority, still claims the mantle of Peter, ...

Weekend Masses could be suspended at a total of 90 parishes across southeast Michigan, according to plans revealed by the Archdiocese of Detroit. Previously released models identified 58 parishes for ...

I have not been writing articles for a while (and probably won’t be doing much) for several reasons, but I am sharing some new graphs and charts that I’ve put ...

American Catholicism is in steep decline. In 2000, 2.6 million American children attended Catholic schools. In 2025, only 1.6 million did. In 2001, more than a quarter-million Catholic weddings took ...

What is going on in the Church in America? Is She singing a swan song, or is She rising again from the ashes like the legendary phoenix? In the spirit ...

Thirteen Catholic churches in a single region in California are slated to close down due to a lack of parishioners, priests and money following a string of sexual abuse lawsuits, ...

The St. Cloud Diocese, which stretches across 16 counties in central Minnesota, is planning the closures in response to steady declines in both the number of priests and parishioners, as ...

A Pew Research Center study found that more adults leave the Catholic Church than enter it in most countries, but Catholics still make up the majority of the population in ...

The Archdiocese of Dubuque is halting weekend Masses at more than 80 parishes across northeastern Iowa this summer as part of a reorganization plan. The reorganization, which began in September ...

The Catholic Church in Germany lost nearly 550,000 members in 2025 and only recorded 25 priestly ordinations nationwide. The German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) has published preliminary figures for 2025 across ...

After nearly 900 years of monastic life, the monks of La Trappe Abbey are considering leaving in 2028. This announcement comes amid a decline in vocations and difficulties related to ...

As enrollment crashes across Germany, Rome answers with synodal seminary reform, female input in priestly discernment, and yet another Vatican text centered on man rather than God Germany’s Catholic theology ...

Among the reasons for the corporatization of the Church, the infiltration by managerialist methods and motives that prioritize process over product and organization charts over the faith, is that handing ...

Inevitably, in the face of dire statistics about the Church, someone will try to rally us, explaining that if we just start synodaling more earnestly, then all will be well ...

Since the 1960s, the ancient chants and beautiful hymns that once elevated the Mass have been discarded in favor of a more “modern” sound. Organs and choirs have given way ...

The number of major seminarians worldwide fell from 108,481 in 2022 to 106,495 in 2023, according to statistics published in the new Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (CWN coverage)—a decline of 1.83% ...

The vast majority of self-identified Catholics are living a lie. In October of every year, my diocese, the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, conducts a “head count” in order to determine ...

The salvation of one’s soul has to serve as the core of Christian belief and practice. In a recent essay discussing the rapid decline of the Catholic Church, Crisis Magazine ...