The following comes from a mid-Oct. story in the San Bernardino diocese paper, Inland Byte.
At the very top of the list of the most populous dioceses in the country, you will find expected Catholic strongholds like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Boston.
With the release of the 2013 Kenedy Directory, a widely-used annual volume of church statistics, you now find the Diocese of San Bernardino near the top of that list, too.
There are an estimated 1.6 million Catholics in the Diocese of San Bernardino, as reported in the Kenedy Directory, making it the fifth largest diocese in the nation. It continues a sharp upward trajectory in the population of the Diocese in recent decades. The Kenedy Directory reported a population of over 561,000 Catholics here 20 years ago, 24th biggest in the nation. By 2003, the Diocese reported one million Catholics, moving up to 12th on the list.
The increase parallels sharp growth in the general population of San Bernardino and Riverside counties along with an even more rapid rise in the Hispanic population of the region, which led the nation between 2000 and 2010. In making its Catholic population estimate for the Kenedy Directory, the Diocese factored in Census statistics on the Hispanic population of the two counties for the first time…. In the Diocese’s report to the Kenedy Directory, those who self-identify as Catholic are counted in the population estimate….
https://www.icbyte.org/news/diocesan-news/547-diocese-is-nation-s-fifth-largest.html
Wow!
I never realized this diocese was so huge!
An old story says that when the Diocese of San Bernardino was being created (an offshoot from the Diocese of San Diego back in 1978), the Bishop of San Diego took all the money, resources, and “good priests” for San Diego, leaving San Bernardino with not much. I pray they are doing better now…
This is extremely exaggerated. If you consider Mass attendees as the population of Catholics, then the numbers are way down, just like the collection baskets. The only area where there is solid attendance is in the desert area where seasonal visitors, primarily seniors, bring the numbers up.
So many Catholics are turned off by the dubious leadership of Bishop Gerald Barnes—the persistent rumor that he traveled by train to Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration of Obama, the filming of a gay movie in a parish church, the million dollar home, and the number of homosexual priests in the diocese.
I lived in that diocese when it was carved out from Sand Diego. Bishop Barnes was a choice recommended by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, namely Cardinal Mahony. I was pretty shocked at the Diocesan Resource Center having many books on the “enneagram” and attending a gathering of parish leadership heard Bishop Barnes refer to the Holy Spirit as “She”. Those two things should be all one needs to know about the fifth largest American diocese. It is sorely in need of leadership, and has been since it was founded.
Interesting information here. Didn’t know that this diocese was so large in Catholic population.