Free Republic

I've heard much talk from tradationalists about the tragic decline of the priesthood since Vatican 2. I do agree that priesthood is a good indicator of the health of the Catholic Church, so I decided to do some research (1996 is the last full year I could find data for on the web; I did find data for 1997 but it seemed incomplete; showing significant drops in all data, including even deaths) Relative Low Secular 1970 1976 Year Number 1996 Europe 2548 1722 1980 1682 2458 LatAm. 414 476 1979 475 1434 N.Am. 890 798 1994 468 474 Africa 176...