Unconfirmed reports

Our pastor in his column in this coming Sunday's St. Al's bulletin says,

I did a bit of research about how many of those who graduated from either our parish day school or our Christian Formation program were recently confirmed. I was happy to learn that it was about 95%. This is a tribute to the faith of our families.

It would, though, be interesting to also see how the actual number of 2010 Confirmations compares to past years. It varied from 69 to 99 in the 1993 through 2005 statistics I have. There also had been a past pattern of significant declines between the number of First Communions by 2nd graders and the number of Confirmations of 11th graders nine years later. In 2001 there were 163 First Communions. If there was a substantial decline from that to the number confirmed this year, that would be another reason to remain concerned about trends.