Dr. Darrick Taylor (Piers the Plowman) of Controversies in Church History recently had me on for a long-planned discussion on my attempts to expand and extrapolate from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA-Georgetown) data.
The episode is also available for free on Patreon here or on Dr. Taylor’s page on Spotify here.
It can also be listened to or downloaded here:
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In our conversation, we discussed my graphs on vocation rates, baptism and conversion rates, Mass attendance, parish and Catholic education statistics from 1900 to the present, as well as my statistical modelling of trends forward to 2060, with particular discussion on how there were negative signs before Vatican II and also on what the future portends for the Church, especially in the United States, unless vocation rates increase with parish sizes and Catholic to priest ratios projected to swell to unsustainable levels. While we cover a lot of negative trends and their cultural causes, we also attempt to look at the hopeful signs and positive trends (of which there are many), as well as how we shouldn’t let broader trends in the Church hurt our individual faith.
The presentation is available in image form here:
Or in presentation form here:
Catholic Statistics Presentation
My dataset, on which I based my analysis, is available as a spreadsheet here:
Catholic Statistics Spreadsheet
I would greatly encourage you to check out Dr. Darrick Taylor’s podcasts on Church history if you haven’t already, especially his 8-hour+ history of the traditionalist movement, his series on liberalism, and his history of Dr. John Senior’s Integrated Humanities Program (IHP). In the style of historian Darryl Cooper, they are both comprehensive and academic as well as narrative and empathetic, helping you comprehend and sympathize, even in disagreement, with what led historical figures to their conclusions. Until I realized he had already made it, something like Dr. Taylor’s traditionalist series, in particular, was something I had a long-term dream of creating myself.
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