I am late in posting these figures, but here are the 2011 Eastern Catholic Churches statistics as reported by ANNUARIO PONTIFICIO.

http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat11.pdf

Thanks, Tom. Someone referenced the new stats about 2 weeks ago and I too thought about the fact that I hadn't yet gotten around to looking at them and posting the link. Then, I forgot

Now that the link is up, let the fun begin. Myself, I'm too tired tonight to start the dissection, but I'm sure someone will make themselves available.

I do want to make a single observation though. Since the Vatican saw fit, several years ago now, to appoint Bishop Werth as Ordinary for Faithful of the Oriental Rites (Byzantine) in Russia (or whatever his formal title in that capacity is, since they've never officially publicized it of which I'm aware), it would seem to be about time that they added it to the listing of Ordinariates and put a number to it.

Many years,

Neil, tiring of the charade that pretends that the Russian Greek-Catholic Church will go away and disappear if ignored long enough

Ok, couln't resist a quick look. Overall, changes from 2010 to 2011, both +/-, are much more conservative than has been the case in years past. Maybe, just maybe, somebody finally got the idea that there should be an attempt to try and produce accurate numbers one of these years.

I also notice that, after years of reporting 0 faithful, the Polish Ordinariate has, for the 3rd year running, managed to count them (few as they are) and miraculously has now located its parishes as well. Will wonders never cease?

Many years,

Neil

Thanks for these observation, Neil. I thought about the very same issues.

While this year's totals do not differ that much from last year's (except for the Armenian Catholic Church), it is still disturbing to see the continuing loss of Eastern Catholics in Iraq and Iran (expect a similar trend in Syria); the same yearly, rounded membership numbers interrupted by a sudden, drastic decline for certain eparchies; and the steady reduction of members in Eastern European eparchies in the U.S. accompanied by a rise in new parishioners by more recent Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara jurisdictions in America.

I also wondered about the Ordinariate for Eastern (non-Ukrainian) Catholics in Poland. I think it includes Armenian Catholic parishes as described in the following website:

http://noravank.am/eng/articles/detail.php?ELEMENT_ID=6054

I've always been curious as to why there is always seemingly little mention in such of the common heritage of the Ruthenian, Slovak, Hungarian and "former Yugoslavian" churches, as listed here.

In saying that, I realize that this table was prepared on the basis of formal ecclesiastical lines.

Yet after seeing the video of the enthronement of Metropolitan William Skurla with all the hierarchs together and pondering the moment, it struck me that the "Ruthenian" Church suffers from a lack of formal cohesion present in larger Churches (eg. UGCC), and this may not help the cause of preserving this Church.

Debates about the strength of present leadership aside, is this an observation worthy of discussion and further consideration (or perhaps a moment of wishful thinking)?

How can those figures be taken seriously when it reports 380,000 for Phoenix? For stats to be helpful they must be truthful.

That's the line for Mukachevo. The reported tally for Phoenix was 2,561 for 2011.

Nonetheless, even 90,000 for Ruthenians in the U.S. is a massive over count; if the number of people at liturgy each Sunday exceeds one third of that, I will be greatly surprised. The reason for the over count is a combination of failure to prune parish rolls (pastors want to keep the numbers up, lest their parish be next on the chopping block); double- and even triple-counting (X is registered in Parish A, despite having re-registered in Parish B, yet regularly attends and is registered in Latin Parish C) and a good dose of wishful thinking.

According to the table, the Ruthenians in the Archeparchy of Pittsburg have 58,700 people distributed across 79 parishes, for an average of 743 people per parish. For Parma, it's 8752 divided by 35, or 250 people per parish (still high). In Passaic, it's 206 people per parish; and for Phoenix/Van Nuys, it's 134 people per parish. The overall total is 87,449 people divided by 217 parishes, or an average of 402 people per parish. I think we can agree these numbers don't match the reality in our churches.

The figures for the Melkite Eparchy of Newton are scarcely more credible: 25,000 people divided over 42 parishes, or an average of 595 people per parish.

You raise a valid point: Who is an Eastern Catholic or an Eastern Orthodox or a "member" of any Church - someone who attends ever Sunday and Holyday, someone who donates regularly, someone on the mailing list, someone who claims to be a member? Who knows? Until we agree on a definition, we are comparing apples to oranges to pears to bananas.

I am struck by the 2010-2011 numbers for the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, which encompasses Northeastern Pennsylvania, a drop from 21,000 to 14,000, or a 33% decline in one year. What are the implications of this trend?

The numbers are a stark reminder of the lack of evangelization in the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Are we content to just go to liturgy and just get what we can get rather than (like the Protestants or Mormons) go out and gset come converts.

Also our priests are too busy - my priest is a wonderful priest but he is a bi ritual priest and spends quite a bit of time dealing with the lack of priests in the Latin Rite - SAYING MASS (the latin rite needs our priests but objects to a married priesthood!

I try and invite people to Liturgy

Also - it is a very disciplined liturgy - you have to really want to be Eastern Catholic - it takes a huge effort.

There are easier softer ways (I personally used to hide out in the Latin Rite - not having to DO much ) but these stats may reflect how modern people can't handle liturgy that requires a lot of attendance - standing through long prayers = the physical as well as the spiritual discipline.

By the way ... we are lucky to get 80 people throughout the weekend of liturgies on average. (not Families - total numbers of people)

I would bet the 595 per Melkite parish - they might be seeing 100 people over Sat Vespers and Sunday Divine Liturgy

if you look at the bulletins of some churches they report the number of people attending liturgy across a weekend.

I think I recall seeing 150 attending another very large byzantine church over an entire weekend.

One more post

The Orthodox have the same problem

There are estimates about membership reported in Orthodox Churches

The example is the the OCA reports like 2 or 3 million members
someone else estimated 800,000 (by examining bulletin reports etc)
The actual number may be less than 400,000 over the entire usa
*numbers to be verified by re reading the article

But what it shows is that numbers reported are way off even for the Orthodox (especially the orthodox)

At Annunciation we do not report average attendance. As a former pastor I have learned how to count. We have 50-60 children 12 and under. We have 12-15 teens. We have between 100 and 190 adults. We will range in attendance on Sunday morning 150-300. We have around 180 registered families. We always have visitors ranging from 2-3 to 60-70. We are among the largest three or four parishes in the Eparchy of Parma.

I've been in this kind of conversations before. The stats are nearly useless.