Not surprising. The population of Bridgeport has declined by 15% and the white population by 30%: all the Irish and Italians have headed for the suburbs - it’s not as if all these parishioners have decided to become Warren/Osteen clowns.
2. Those of us of Italian ancestry don't like being lumped in with the Irish, who came before we did, and were not very nice to my ancestors.
3. The fastest growing populations in Bridgeport for the past 20 years have been the Hispanics and Brazilians, who are as much cafeteria Catholics as the white "Catholics" who live in suburban Fairfield County.
The northeast in general has become rapidly secularized, which has become more pronounced as the pre-boomers die off and their parochial allegiances with them.