It is June ”” that time of year when many of us will be receiving wedding invitations. One thing that may have changed from years past is the likelihood that the address on that invitation is for a country club, beach or community center rather than a Catholic parish.
The number of marriages celebrated in the Church has fallen from 415,487 in 1972 to 168,400 in 2010 ”” a decrease of nearly 60 percent ”” while the U.S. Catholic population has increased by almost 17 million. To put this another way, this is a shift from 8.6 marriages per 1,000 U.S. Catholics in 1972 to 2.6 marriages per 1,000 Catholics in 2010.
Read it all (my emphasis).
Good grief! The RCC is making TEC look good. Marriages in TEC declined from 1970 to 2009 by about 70 percent. BUT, on a basis of per 1,000 Members, TEC decined from 10.9 to 5.8 per thousand. Statmann