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Mar 25th, 2025
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Deacon El,
I agree - those look reasonably accurate. A very high number of faithful coming out of communism - as was the case with all the East European Byzantine Churches - with the number being refined, almost inevitably downward, as the Church reorganized after decades of repression. Likewise, I think the clergy numbers are probably accurate. It's solely the parish count that I think is awry.
Many years,
Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Well, stats question seems a truly complicated one.  Let's confront the Polish example. Eparchy of Wrocław and Gdańsk reported 53 thousand, then 50 thousand, then 21 thousand, then 25 thousand (one year increase!). But at the same time His Grace Volodymyr in his pastoral of April 29th 2004 wrote that the number of active faithful in his Eparchy was 8678 (!). This is a direct quote from the pastoral: Опитуваних у Вроцлавсько-Гданській Єпархії було 7511 осіб, тобто тих, котрих відвідали наші священики зі свяченою водою. Враховуючи дітей початкових і середніх шкіл, які не брали участі в анкетуванні, а яких маємо приблизно 1176 осіб, виходить, що у Єпархії маємо 8687 осіб, які признаються до свого походження. So less than 9 thousand, certainly not fifty thousand as reported in Annuario. My own estimations concerning metropolitan eparchy's (Peremyshl and Warsaw) stats: about 22470 faithful for the year 2002. Please forgive me to quote myself: Під час Собору 2002 року опубліковано інформацію, що реальних греко-католиків не 85 тис., як подавалося в Annuario Pontificio, а 30-35 тис. Щодо Вроцлавсько-Ґданської єпархії, то тут Владика Володимир у посланні з 29 квітня 2004 року подав число вірних 8 тис. 687 осіб (“офіційне” число в Annuario Pontificio декілька років подавалося як 53 тис.!). У випадку нашої, митрополичої єпархії, певні підрахунки можна зробити на основі соборної доповіді канцлера Митрополичої курії в Перемишлі о. прот. Богдана Степана, опублікованої в Календарі “Благовіста” за 2003 рік (с. 100). Подає він там число вірних на одного священика в окремих деканатах. Множення цих чисел на число священиків у кожному деканаті (враховуючи ченців та пенсіонерів) дає станом на 2002 рік загальну цифру 22 тис. 470 осіб*, тоді як в Annuario Pontificio подано 32 тисячі. Число реальних вірних УГКЦ в Польщі досягає, отже, не більше 31 тисячі осіб – і то за станом з-перед кількох років, перед входом Польщі до Євросоюзу і масовими виїздами на Захід за працею.
*) У Перемиському деканаті 14х263=3682 вірних , у Краківсько-Криницькому – 8х161=1288 вірних, в Ольштинському – 12х875=10500 вірних, в Ельблонзькому – 7х1000= 7000 вірних – разом 22 тисячі 470 осіб (дані про священиків за Календарем “Благовіста” за 2002 р., с. 171-179. However, metropolitan eparchy reported 32 thousand, so the difference between reality and Annuario Pontificio was not so great as in the case of Wrocław-Gdańsk. Of course, we have year 2011 now, not, 2002 or 2004 (before admission of Poland to the EU - May 1st 2004 - which caused a mass labor emigration). So the real number of UGCC parishioners seems to be well under 30 thousand. Some people say that even less than 20 thousand. Maybe true, maybe not.
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Seems like their are more Eastern Catholics in 2010 than 1990. That's good to see!.
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I wonder how many actually go to church. It's easy to count baptismal certificates and put that out as the figure. The UGCC church I go to had a cultural event on after Divine Liturgy and today we saw some of the youth that the PP goes on about so often but I dont see when month after months I look down into the church at the white heads below. Naturally they all took communion and I wont see many of them again until Pascha. 
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Hello,
Could someone kindly tell me what happened that explains the huge drop in the US Byzantine Catholic Church from 1990 to 2000?
Thank you,
Fred
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In answering a question posted elsewhere about the number of Catholics in the Czech Republic, I remembered that I had seen a number cited at the Exarchate's website, when I perused it yesterday. Looking back to it and comparing it to AP's numbers, I am flabbergasted. The Exarchate reports 7,675 and notes that there are an additional 'few thousands from Greek Catholic eparchies in Ukraine and Slovakia' - whom I presume are there as workers, students, etc http://www.exarchat.cz/Annuario Pontificio, on the other hand, reports 178,150 -  http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat10.pdfDon't ask me where AP got its numbers; I'm betting on the Exarchate to be correct. Many years, Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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Amazing! I cannot imagine a plausible explanation for the large difference, but there must be one.
This example brings up the question of how many Catholics are there in any diocese anywhere in the world. And is that answered the same way everywhere?
In my local Roman Catholic diocese, our parish could answer the question by counting the number of donation envelopes, but that does not account for singles, married couples, or family members. Once a year, our diocese requires a manual count of attendees at each Mass. However, that is only a single "snapshot" in time and includes visitors and excludes sick and out-of-town members. Finally, there is the whole issue of who is Catholic - the registered parish member, the communicants, the "cultural" Catholic - and who decides whom to count.
The question is a complicated one with different answers. Thanks for informing us of your research discovery, Neil. It should make each of us ask ourselves would I be counted as a Catholic and what kind of Catholic am I.
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Amazing! I cannot imagine a plausible explanation for the large difference, but there must be one.
Someone actually counted noses, as opposed to taking everybody's word for how many people were showing up?
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Amazing! I cannot imagine a plausible explanation for the large difference, but there must be one.
Someone actually counted noses, as opposed to taking everybody's word for how many people were showing up? Stuart, The question remains though, if the exarchate produced that number on its website, one would believe they also would have reported the same number to AP - so, there would seem to be a disconnect at Rome's end. Perhaps we've been wrongly blaming the first-level reporters, when we should be looking at those on the second level? Many years, Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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That is entirely possible.
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In my local Roman Catholic diocese, our parish could answer the question by counting the number of donation envelopes, but that does not account for singles, married couples, or family members. At one parish with which I am familiar, the ushers use clickers to count the number of people at each Liturgy, and of those the number who receive communion. The figures are entered into a ledger in the narthex. You can do some interesting statistical analysis with those data.
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In the Roman Catholic parish we attend the attendance at every mass is recorded. That is six different masses. The total attendance for the previous Sunday is published in the bulletin every week. The last Sunday it was 3409. The Archdiocese also conducted a census during October where the attendance at every parish was recorded for four Sundays in a row. I think this gives a pretty good indication of the numbers who are active. On the other hand, if the number of offering envelopes is any indication, at the moment we are probably on the rolls of three different parishes since we get three different packets each year mailed to us.
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Isn't the spirit of community lost in such a large parish?
Sounds like each parishioner is just a number.
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Our Byzantine Catholic Parish does the same thing. Each Bulletin has listed the previous Sunday's attendance at Divine Liturgy. We are no where near 3409 though! More or less around 100 each Sunday morning with lots of little Children.
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