The Official Catholic Directory for 2011 arrived on my desk the other day. It is the official compilation of the statistics from every diocese in the United States. Those of us who frequently use this volume refer to it as the Kennedy Directory because it is published annually by P. J. Kennedy and Sons.
This year’s volume is 2102 pages long and weighs 12 pounds.
The Directory explains that there are 4.8 million people who live in Brooklyn and Queens, one third of whom are Catholic. If those numbers are true, it means that only about 15% of the Catholic population in Brooklyn and Queens attends Mass each week.
There are 197 parishes in our diocese, 20 less than 10 years ago.  Boston has 78 fewer parishes; Greensburg, Pa., is down 20, and Trenton, N. J., has 16 less. In the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the dioceses of Paterson, N. J., and Bridgeport, Conn., the number of parishes has remained unchanged.
In Brooklyn and Queens, there were 18,078 baptisms in 2010 compared to 22,236 just 10 years ago. Parishes celebrated 8,958 funerals, down from 11,825, and 2,394 couples were married in the church, from 4,352 in 2000.
“Over time there has been a notable decline in the number of infant baptisms reported by dioceses,” says an accompanying report from the Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).  “Historically, there has been a segment of the Catholic population that is only loosely associated with the faith.  These were Catholics who still baptized their children in the Catholic faith although they only infrequently attended Mass.  This population has waned.”
Here’s an interesting point. The report also says that church weddings have declined significantly in dioceses that are close to popular resort areas, such as Las Vegas, that that specialize in elopements and “quickie” weddings.
At the end of life, the study says that only about 81% of Catholics who pass away receive a Catholic funeral.
Church weddings also are lower than they have been in the past.  The peak year for marriages in the Church was 1948, as the country emerged from World War II, says CARA. There were 15 weddings per every 1,000 Catholics.  That rate has dipped to 2.6 per 1,000.
On a brighter note, the number of deacons in the United States now numbers 16,934, an increase of 34% over the past decade.
We have 516 diocesan priests (was 664 in 2000), but only 274 of them are active in the diocese, 24 are serving outside the diocese and 218 are either retired, sick or absent from duty.
Of the 197 parishes in Brooklyn and Queens, 177 are administered by diocesan priests while 21 are under the direction of religious orders.
So, what do all these numbers mean? Here are some observations:
• The Church in Brooklyn and Queens is facing many of the same problems as other dioceses across the country;
•  The ongoing diocesan program of reconfiguration is necessary and needs our support; and
• The success of the New Evangelization will determine the growth of the Church in our diocese and the United States.