204,000 Fewer Students

The July 14, 2006 issue of the West Nebraska Register carried a story by Jerry Filteau from the Catholic News Service. The story highlighted figures from the 2006 Official Catholic Directory. According to the article,

There were some 729,000 high school students enrolled in parish religious education programs, 26,00 fewer than the previous year. Elementary students in religious education numbered nearly 3.5 million, but the total was 81,000 below the previous years figure.

In all, the number of Catholic children receiving faith formation in Catholic schools or religious education programs last year was 204,000 lower than the year before.

As a diocesan director, I would like to discuss this drop in participation. Several questions do come to mind. Are there any other studies that report the same drop in participation? If the Catholic population in the U. S. is increasing, as the article says, why is participation in religious education programs dropping? Are there fewer children to share the faith with or are families opting not to send their children? If they are opting not to send their children, I wonder why. Is the drop in participation uniform across the country, the same in rural and urban areas and the same across cultural lines? So many questions.

Don