ATTLEBORO (MA)
The Sun Chronicle
October 27, 2018
By Mark Stockwell
Matthew Gill was born into a devout Catholic family in January 1990.
It was the dawn of a new life, a new decade and the eve of a very dark time for the faith held by his devout family.
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Nineteen-ninety was another in a long string of years that marked a continuing decline in church attendance.
And the number of men entering the priesthood had fallen off sharply.
Ironically, however, it was the year that recorded the greatest number of parishes nationwide, before or after.
That number was 19,620, according to statistics compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.
There were 34,114 diocesan priests to serve those parishes, in purely mathematical terms, 1.7 priests per parish.
In 1970 there were slightly more than two priests per parish, again in purely mathematical terms, 2.05.
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