Larger US dioceses fall short in statistics on pastoral success

November 03, 2025

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CWN Editor's Note: Writing in Catholic World Report, J. J. Ziegler examines statistics for pastoral activity in all US dioceses, and provides a full report on the number of infant baptisms, seminarians, weddings, and adults received into the Catholic Church in every diocese.

Rating the American dioceses by how these statistics compare with the number of Catholics registered in each diocese, Ziegler finds that:

• The Diocese of Rapid City leads the field with one seminarian for every 1,904 Catholics—89 times the rate of the last-place entry, the Diocese of Brownsville.
• The Diocese of Nashville had a rate of infant baptisms 12 times higher than that of Lubbock, Texas.
• The Salina diocese had a wedding rate 15 times higher than that of Lubbock.
• The Raleigh diocese welcomed adults into the Church at a rate 34 times higher than that of the Newark archdiocese.

Although the full records (which the Catholic World Report article provides do not allow for many easy generalizations, Ziegler notes a sharp decline in the figures for the largest dioceses and archdioceses. He writes:

Correlation is not causation, but there does seem to be a terrible cost to souls once an American diocese grows over 700,000 Catholics: the combination of baptism, conversion, seminarian, and wedding rates inevitably falls below average.

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• Posted by: feedback - Nov. 03, 2025 11:36 PM ET USA

  This is a valuable report to those who are responsible before God for the salvation of souls, starting at the very top of the hierarchy. The same must be true of parishes. When a lone pastor is assigned to run two large parishes (Chicago), the pastoral care will be lacking while the priest will be overwhelmed.