We won! We won! We're losing slowly!

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 10, 2007

The spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna, Austria, wants us to know that "the constant harping about a Church crisis" is overblown. Here's his evidence:

Archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger cited a recent survey showing that more than 4 in 10 of Austria's 8.2 million people attend Mass at least once a month, and 33% pack pews for Christmas, Easter and other major religious holidays.

With the pews so "packed," maybe you felt crowded at Christmas Mass in Vienna. If so, don't worry; you should have more room next year.

Across the overwhelmingly Catholic country, 36,645 people formally withdrew from the church last year, a nearly 18% drop from the 44,609 believers who canceled their memberships in 2005, the archdiocese said.

The whole happy story restores our confidence that the patient is healthy, since he's bleeding much less freely now.