[dangus]

Actually, the growth in the last two years was more than can be explained by immigration. And the Church *does* regularly purge its membership files. The reason some estimates of the number of Catholics are too high is because they often ask in surveys, "what religion are you," and former Catholics will frequently answer Catholic long after they have left the faith, or taken up a new one (as in Presybterian Wesley Clark, New Age freak Dennis Kucinich or apostate John Kerry.)

Mind you, this survey does not measure church *attendance,* only membership. I do suppose attendance has dropped; it dropped drastically, for instance, in the 1970s. But it is still noteworthy if the Catholic Church is gaining members faster than she loses them even in the present crisis; it means that there are people out there reaping a harvest!

Likewise, one can be misled reading that seminary enrollment is at an all-time high, but it is nonetheless a positive sign that the long, devestating collapse in vocations has finally turned around.