A recent study by Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) finds that the number of men studying for the priesthood in the U.S. at the graduate level has increased to 3,386, the highest level in five years. But Catholic officials admit the current increases will not be enough to offset losses from death and retirement. (In 1965, senior seminarians numbered 8,159.)

The CARA study found 29,137 lay people enrolled in professional ministerial training, up from 10,500 in 1985. Writing in America Apr. 10, Joseph Claude Harris estimates that U.S. parishes will have to hire an additional 5,400 lay ministers per year by 2010 just to maintain present staffing levels of 5.5 per 1,000 registered Catholics. This is needed due to a projected increase in Catholics to 68.8 million and a simultaneous loss of priests and religious available to serve.

Worldwide, the 1997 Vatican Statistical Yearbook says the Catholic population has topped one billion while the number of priests has declined by four percent to 404,000 by the end of 1997. The priest to parishioner ratio varies wildly: Italy has one priest per 1,000 Catholics, and Brazil one priest per 9,000. The yearbook estimates that only 21 percent of the pastoral work is done by priests and bishops.