Religion: Up&Up

U.S. Roman Catholics are having their own population explosion, and the gains are making problems for their church. Sociologist Dr. Donald N. Barrett, of the University of Notre Dame, told a meeting of the American Catholic Sociological Society last week that there are now an estimated 43,650,000 U.S. Catholics, and that during the decade 1950-59, the Catholic population increased by 35.8% while the total U.S. population grew by only 16.6%.

The number of Catholics is increasing three times as fast as the numbers of seminarians and sisters, twice as fast as priests, and almost four times as fast as parishes. "If lay people are unwilling to enter seminaries and the sisterhoods." concluded Dr. Barrett, "they must be utilized in greater numbers and more effectively in an expanding scope of church functions."