When then-Bishop Dolan was named Archbishop of Milwaukee, the number of Catholics here was reported as "about 700,000".
The recent New York Times report of his designation as a Cardinal includes his recounting of the 2004 ad limina visit to Rome. "I said: ‘Holy Father, we have good news. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is growing.’”
That same article gives the number of Catholics in our Archdiocese as 630,000.
To be fair there are a few ways to measure growth, the number of seminarians was growing.
ReplyDeleteIf he was equating an increase in seminarians with an unqualified "growing" in an Archdiocese that was losing people and making contingency plans for bankruptcy, then that should be added to the "imprecise communicatsions" file.
ReplyDeletejust giving credit where credit is due, growing the number of seminarians was a vital feat and cause for joy.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to agree that it sure beats having declining numbers and no new seminarians.
ReplyDeleteIf the newer priests are more concerned wtih declining nonfinancial numbers than some of our older ones seem to be, then a future Archbishop might be able to say our Archdiocese is growing, without unstated qualification.