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Published: 02 October 2015

PUBLISHED NEWMAN DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY, PASTORAL RESEARCH

CENTRE & RELATED BOOKS, REPORTS & PAPERS

NOTES

(a) When two years are reported in the list below the first is that of private circulation and the second that

of formal publication.

(b) Reports & papers marked Free can be downloaded now. Those marked Amazon can be bought now

on Amazon. Those marked Order can be ordered now on this website.

(c) For any titles not marked as above, please contact the distributor, below, by e-mail.

(d) This list does not include articles in journals, other serials and symposia that have not been published

separately.

All published reports & papers of the Newman Demographic Survey and the Pastoral Research Centre are

distributed by Russell-Spencer, Stone House, Hele, Taunton, Somerset TA4 1AJ, England.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NEWMAN DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY. PUBLISHED REPORTS & PAPERS

Archer, John F. (Foreword by A.E.C.W. Spencer). Age & sex distribution of

Catholics in England & Wales, mid-1952. A first approximation. 1954/2005. A4, pp.4,

ISBN 1-905270-17-8 75p.+P&P.

Brooke, Eileen (Ed.) Statistics of secular and regular clergy and priestly vocations,

1870-1957. 1958/2005. Foolscap, pp.12+ii, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-03-8. £2-50+P&P.

Chapple, Michael, and A.E.C.W. Spencer (eds.) Report to the Catholic clergy of England &

Wales on the parish register returns for 1958. 1960/2005. A4, pp.2, facsimile.

ISBN 1-905270-27-5. £0-50p.+P&P

Hickey, John. The Irish rural immigrant and British urban society. 1960.2005. Quarto, pp.59+v,

mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-04-6. £5-00+P&P.

Morris, H. Graham (Ed.) Teachers in Catholic schools in England & Wales, January, 1962. An

analysis by diocese, status and type of school, and the sex, religious status and

educational status of teachers. 1963/2005. A4, pp. i+19, facsimile.ISBN 1-905270-24-0.

£3.00.

Morris, H.Graham, and Anthony E.C.W. Spencer (Eds.) Pupil enrolment statistics of

Catholic schools in England and Wales, January, 1960. Supplementary tables:

I Boarders, II Educationally sub-normal pupils. A4, pp.15, facsimile.

ISBN 1-905270-21-6. £ 3.00+P&P.

Morris, H. Graham, and Anthony E.C.W. Spencer (Eds). Digest of statistics of Catholic schools

in England & Wales, 1961. Schools, pupils and teachers, by diocese & local education

authority. 1961/2009. A4, pp. vii+61. ISBN 978-1-905270-45-3 £11.30+P&P.

Nevin, Edward T. (Ed.) Report on the social census of the parish of Aberystwyth, 1955.

1955/2005. Quarto, on A4, pp.9, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-05-4 £1-00+P&P.

Parkin, Barbara (Ed.) Converts to Catholicism. An analysis by age and sex of

applications to the Chancery office of the Archdiocese of Westminster,

1917-1953, for a licence to reconcile a convert. 1955/2005. A4, facsimile, pp. ii+37.

ISBN 1-905270-22-4. £6.50+P&P.

St Rose-Haynes, Joan. Maintained school place requirements of the Catholic community in the

administrative county of Hertfordshire, 1964-1970. 1964/2005. A4, pp.iii+42 (10 charts),

facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-26-7. £7.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Report to the parish clergy of England & Wales on the parish register

returns for 1959. 1961/2005. A4, pp.3, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-28-3. £0-75p+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Report to the parish clergy of England & Wales on the parish register

returns for 1960. A4, pp.8, part facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-29-1

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Supply & demand of teachers for Catholic maintained schools, 1965.

Preliminary report to the Catholic Education Council. 1955/2005. A4, pp.iv+8,

facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-13-5. £2-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). Notes on statistics of the dioceses of England & Wales. A study

for the International Conference on the Formative Power of the Church in the new

Europe, Munich, 1960. 1960/2005. Foolscap, pp.7, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-10-0

£1-75+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). The Catholic population of England, Wales, Channel Isles and

the Isle of Man, 1961. Selected pastoral statistics, according to Local Education

Authority and Diocese. An Interim Review. 1963/2005. A4, pp.i+9, facsimile.

ISBN 1-905270-12-7 £2.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed) Estimates of the number of Catholics under the age of 15 in

England and Wales on 1st January, 1955, by age and sex. 1955/2005. Foolscap, pp.13,

mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-11-9. £2.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The selection of a date for the annual count of Mass attendance.

Report prepared for the Hierarchy of England & Wales,1961. Foolscap, pp.7, mimeo.

ISBN 1-905270-07-0. £2.20+P&P. 1961/2005.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The balance of training in the Catholic teacher training colleges

during the 1960s. A report prepared for the Catholic Education Council and the

Committee of Principals of Catholic Teacher Training Colleges. Foolscap, pp.7,

mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-20-8. £1.75+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Catholics in the universities of England & Wales, 1960/1. An interim

report on the Catholic Student Index Scheme. 1962/2005. ISBN 1-905270-18-6.

£3-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed) An annotated bibliography of Newman Demographic Survey

reports and papers, 1954-1964. 1963/2006. A4, pp.ii+19. ISBN 1-905270-30-5

£3.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Introduction to

the series. 2011. A4. pp.13. ISBN 978-1-905270-58-3. £2.90+ P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of

Brentwood. 2011. A4. pp.20. ISBN 978-1-905270-60-6. £6.40 +P&P. (Price includes

Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of

Menevia. 2011. A4. pp.19. ISBN 978-1-905270-62-0 (3rd edn.) £6.10 +P&P. (Price

includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Archdiocese of

Cardiff. 2011. A4. pp20. ISBN 978-1-905270-54-5. £6.70 +P&P. Price includes

Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of

Clifton. 2010. A4. pp.19. ISBN 978-1-905270-65-1.£8.20+P&P (Incl. Introduction to

series).

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The suppression of a research report. Another long slow failure. Reflections

on a very secret disaster. 2008/2012. A4. pp.3 ISBN 978-1-905270-66-8. FREE

Spencer, A.E.C.W. and Juanita Byrne-Quinn (Eds.) Projected teacher deficiency of Catholic

Maintained and assisted schools, January, 1958-1970. A report prepared for the Catholic

Education Council.1958/2006.A4. pp.ii+45, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-14-3

£7.50+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony (ed.) and Mary Daly (ed.) Arrangements for the integration of Irish

immigrants in England & Wales. Pp.xviii + 137. Hardback ISBN 978-1-906865-11-5.

Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. €35.00. See Related Books.

Woolgar, Daniel (Ed.) Census of Catholic clergy and religious, May, 1961. A preliminary report.

1962/2005. A4, pp.ii+6, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-23-2. £1.00+P&P.

Woolgar, Daniel (Ed). Census of Catholic Clergy and Religious, England & Wales, 1961.

General Tables. Vol. I. Secular Clergy. 1963/2005. A4, pp.xix+23, facsimile.

ISBN 1-905270-08-9. £7-00+P&P.

Woolgar, Daniel, and A.E.C.W Spencer (eds.) Census of the Catholic parish of Liverpool

St Timothy, 1961. 1961/2008. A4, pp.ii+18. ISBN 978-1-905270-42-2. £5.40+P&P.

PASTORAL RESEARCH CENTRE. PUBLISHED REPORTS & PAPERS

Spencer, A.E.C.W. A critical appraisal of the structure of Catholic education in England

& Wales. (Facsimile edition of a paper read at a Newman Association conference,

October, 1963, with a Personal Postcript added in 2005.) 1963/2005. A4, pp.38+ii. ISBN

0-901707-09-0. £7-00 + P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The estimation and projection of Catholic population in an area of diaspora

or mixed religion. A paper read at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Statisticians,

Oxford, 1964. 1964/2005. A4, pp. 12. ISBN 0-901707-03-1. £2-50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Report on the parish register statistics of the Catholic Church in Scotland,

1966. 1967. 22.1x14.6cm, pp.23+2 maps. ISBN 0-901707-00-7. £3-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Christian Teacher Training Institutions. Register of Christian

Church-related teacher training institutions in Africa, Asia & Latin America,

1964-5. 1968. (In English, French & Spanish). A re-issue of a report published in 1968

by Burns & Oates and Herder and Herder. A4, pp.116+xl. ISBN 0-901707-05-8.

£10-00 + P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Report on the parish register, religious practice & population statistics of

the Catholic Church in Scotland, 1967. 1969. 22.1x14.6cm, pp.45+map.

ISBN 0-901707-01-5. £6-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The future of the episcopal and papal roles. 1970. (Re-print of a paper

published in IDOC International North American edition, 9 May, 1970.) A4, pp.8.

ISBN 0-901707-02-3. £1-50+P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The organization of Catholic education in New Zealand. An Interim Report.

I972/2005. (A facsimile edition of the Interim Report of 1972, with new Personal

Postscript by the author and Foreword by John J. Small). Pp.554+ xvi.

Library edition (buckram) ISBN 1-905270-00-3. £64-50+P&P.

Laminated board (with plastic spiral binding) ISBN 1-905270-02-X.£40-00+P&P.

Paperback (open-flat, thermo-binding) ISBN 1-905270-01-1. £37-50+P&P

Spencer, A.E.C.W. From crisis of growth to rapid decline. Demographic change within the

Catholic community of England & Wales, 1958-1973. 2005. A4, pp.14.

ISBN 0-901707-07-4 £2-50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Alienation re-visited. The demography of Catholicism in England & Wales,

1958-1977. (Paper read at a conference of the British Sociological Association’s

Sociology of Religion Study Group, at the University of Surrey, 1979). 1979.2005. A4,

pp.13+6. ISBN 0-901707-07-4 £3.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Pastoral and population statistics of the Catholic community in

England & Wales, 1958-2002. A report to parishes. 2004. A4, pp8. ISBN 0-901707-06-6.

£1-00+P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The development of integrated education in Belfast: a planning study for

1984-9. 1984/2005. A4, pp. ii+67+xxiv+4 maps. ISBN 1-905270-14-3. £15.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Second Spring. The demography of the Catholic community of England

and Wales, 1850-1865: marriages, baptisms, converts and Catholic population. 2005.

A4, pp.ii+13. ISBN 0-901707-04-X. £2.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). Pastoral and demographic statistics of the Catholic Church in England

& Wales, 1963-1991. 2006. Facsimile, A4, pp.ix+259. ISBN 1-905270-16-X.

£25.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Facts and figures for the 21st century. An assessment of the statistics of the

Catholic community in England & Wales. 2006. A4, pp.ii+55.

ISBN-13 978-1-905270-32-3 £10.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Digest of statistics of the Catholic community of England & Wales,

1958-2005. Vol. I: Population and vital statistics, pastoral services, evangelization and

education. 2007. A4, pp.iv+180. ISBN-13-978-1-905270-37-8 £58.00+P&P (Library

edition, buckram) 905270-38-5 (paperback) 905270-39-2 (plastic comb) 905270-40-8

(wire). All £18.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Services for Catholic Migrants, 1939-2008. Background data from the

archives and databank of the Newman Demographic Survey and the Pastoral Research

Centre. 2008. A4, pp.i+35. ISBN 978-1-905270-41-5 £3.40+P&P

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. The publication of ecclesiastical statistics. 1964/2008. Facsimile, A4,

pp.iv+11. ISBN 978-1-905270-43-9. £3.20+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony, E.C.W. The organization of statistical, information and documentation

services within the Church. 1964/2008.Facsimile, A4, pp. v+12.

ISBN 978-1-905270-45-6. £3.50+P&P

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. The age structure of the Catholic population of England & Wales,

1947-1980. Estimates made using the Archer-Dean-Cox crude cohort method. 2009.

A4, pp. i+18. ISBN 978-1-905270-49-1 £4.00+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. (ed.). Census of the Catholic parish of Barking St Mary & St

Ethelburga, 1965. 1965/2009 A4, pp. xii+12. ISBN 978-1-905270-48-4 . £4.20+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Bibliography of Christian Church directories and Year Books, Great

Britain and Ireland (with Pastoral Research Centre holdings). 2009. A4. pp. 4+9.

ISBN 978-1-905270-50-7. £4.20 +P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Secrecy in the Catholic Church. The case of Catholic school statistics in

England & Wales. 2010. A4. pp. 14+xiii. ISBN 878-1-905270-52-1. £4.20 +P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Reconstruction of the 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England &

Wales. Introduction to the series. 2011. A4. pp. 37. ISBN 978-1-905270-55-2. £5.80

+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A

Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Brentwood.

2011. A4. pp.23. ISBN 978-1-905270-57-6. £9.40 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to

the series.).

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A

Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Menevia.

2011. A4. pp.23. ISBN 978-1-905270-56-9. £9.20 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to

the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A

Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Wrexham.

2011. A4. pp.21. ISBN 978-1-905270-59-0. £9.50 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to

the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Re-inventing the statistical wheel. Recommendations on the rationalisation of

The pastoral & population statistics system of the Catholic Church in England & Wales.

2003/2013. A4. pp.15. ISBN 978-1-905270-70-5. £4.80+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Gains & losses over 45 years. A review of the natural increase of the

Catholic population of England & Wales, and implicit gains & losses, as reported by the

parish clergy to their bishops, 1958-2002. 2003/2013. A4. pp.16.

ISBN 978-1-905270-68-2. £5.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Broken faith: the demography of a Church tearing itself apart.

2004/2013. A4.pp.4 ISBN 978-1-905 270-69-9. £1.70+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Catholic directories worldwide and the Catholic Directory of England &

Wales, 2013. 2013. A4. pp.iii+12. ISBN 978-1-905270-67-4. £5.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Demographic and sociographic statistics of the English Province of the

Society of the Holy Child Jesus, 1961-1968. 1968/2013. A4. pp.18

ISBN 978-1-905270-67-5.£3.30+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Pastoral policy and planning for the twenty-first century. A report for the

Diocese of Clifton. 2007/2015. A4. pp.ii+27. ISBN 978-1-905270-72-9. Free

RELATED BOOKS, REPORTS & PAPERS

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. Crisis, Co-habitation, Contraception & Divorce. Five sets of

Proposals for the two synods. 2014. A5. pp.149. ISBN 978-1-905270-73-6 £6.00 +P&P

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed. Mary E. Daly). Arrangements for the Integration of Irish Immigrants in

England and Wales. 1960/2012. Hardback, 25x16cm. Pp. xviii+137.

ISBN 978-1-906865-11-5. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. €35. Amazon

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The Future of Catholic Education in England & Wales. 1971. Catholic

Renewal Movement. Paperback. 16.4x12 cm. Pp. 52.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Ballymurphy. A Tale of Two Surveys. 1973. A4. Pp.150. Queen’s University

of Belfast. Dept of Social Studies. Paperback.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. and P.A. Dwyer (Eds.) Sociological Association of Ireland. Cumann

Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of Second Annual Conference, Dublin, April,

1975. 1976. A4. Pp.137. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept. of Social Studies.

ISBN 0-8539-098-6 (Paperback).

Spencer, A.E.C.W., R.J. Cormack, L. O’Dowd and H. Tovey (Eds.) Sociological Association of

Ireland. Cumann Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of the Third Annual

Conference, Dublin, 1976. 1977. A4. Pp. 50. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept of

Social Studies. ISBN 0-85389-123-0 Paperback.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Dependency: Social, Political, Cultural. Sociological Association of

Ireland. Cumann Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual

Conference, Cork, April, 1978, and Transactions, 1977-8. 1979. A4. Pp. 131.

Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept of Social Studies. ISSN 0143-9049,

ISBN 0-85389-149-4 Paperback.

3.9.15 at 1240

Published: 05 September 2015

PUBLISHED NEWMAN DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY, PASTORAL RESEARCH CENTRE & RELATED BOOKS, REPORTS & PAPERS NOTES

(a) When two years are reported in the list below the first is that of private circulation and the second that of formal publication.

(b) Reports & papers marked Free can be downloaded now. Those marked Amazon can be bought now on Amazon. Those marked Order can be ordered now on this website.

(c) For any titles not marked as above, please contact the distributor, below, by e-mail.

(d) This list does not include articles in journals, other serials, and symposia that have not been published separately.

All published reports & papers of the Newman Demographic Survey and the Pastoral Research Centre are distributed by Russell-Spencer, Stone House, Hele, Taunton, Somerset TA4 1AJ, England. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NEWMAN DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY. PUBLISHED REPORTS & PAPERS

Archer, John F. (Foreword by A.E.C.W. Spencer). Age & sex distribution of Catholics in England & Wales, mid-1952. A first approximation. 1954/2005. A4, pp.4,

ISBN 1-905270-17-8 75p.+P&P. Brooke, Eileen (Ed.) Statistics of secular and regular clergy and priestly vocations, 1870-1957. 1958/2005. Foolscap, pp.12+ii, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-03-8. £2-50+P&P.

Chapple, Michael, and A.E.C.W. Spencer (eds.) Report to the Catholic clergy of England & Wales on the parish register returns for 1958. 1960/2005. A4, pp.2, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-27-5. £0-50p.+P&P

Hickey, John. The Irish rural immigrant and British urban society. 1960.2005. Quarto, pp.59+v, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-04-6. £5-00+P&P.

Morris, H. Graham (Ed.) Teachers in Catholic schools in England & Wales, January, 1962. An analysis by diocese, status and type of school, and the sex, religious status and educational status of teachers. 1963/2005. A4, pp. i+19, facsimile.ISBN 1-905270-24-0. £3.00.

Morris, H.Graham, and Anthony E.C.W. Spencer (Eds.) Pupil enrolment statistics of Catholic schools in England and Wales, January, 1960. Supplementary tables: I Boarders, II Educationally sub-normal pupils. A4, pp.15, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-21-6. £ 3.00+P&P.

Morris, H. Graham, and Anthony E.C.W. Spencer (Eds). Digest of statistics of Catholic schools in England & Wales, 1961. Schools, pupils and teachers, by diocese & local education authority. 1961/2009. A4, pp. vii+61. ISBN 978-1-905270-45-3 £11.30+P&P.

Nevin, Edward T. (Ed.) Report on the social census of the parish of Aberystwyth, 1955. 1955/2005. Quarto, on A4, pp.9, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-05-4 £1-00+P&P.

Parkin, Barbara (Ed.) Converts to Catholicism. An analysis by age and sex of applications to the Chancery office of the Archdiocese of Westminster, 1917-1953, for a licence to reconcile a convert. 1955/2005. A4, facsimile, pp. ii+37. ISBN 1-905270-22-4. £6.50+P&P.

St Rose-Haynes, Joan. Maintained school place requirements of the Catholic community in the administrative county of Hertfordshire, 1964-1970. 1964/2005. A4, pp.iii+42 (10 charts), facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-26-7. £7.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Report to the parish clergy of England & Wales on the parish register returns for 1959. 1961/2005. A4, pp.3, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-28-3. £0-75p+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Report to the parish clergy of England & Wales on the parish register returns for 1960. A4, pp.8, part facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-29-1

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Supply & demand of teachers for Catholic maintained schools, 1965.

Preliminary report to the Catholic Education Council. 1955/2005. A4, pp.iv+8, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-13-5. £2-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). Notes on statistics of the dioceses of England & Wales. A study for the International Conference on the Formative Power of the Church in the new Europe, Munich, 1960. 1960/2005. Foolscap, pp.7, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-10-0 £1-75+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). The Catholic population of England, Wales, Channel Isles and the Isle of Man, 1961. Selected pastoral statistics, according to Local Education Authority and Diocese. An Interim Review. 1963/2005. A4, pp.i+9, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-12-7 £2.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed) Estimates of the number of Catholics under the age of 15 in England and Wales on 1st January, 1955, by age and sex. 1955/2005. Foolscap, pp.13, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-11-9. £2.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The selection of a date for the annual count of Mass attendance. Report prepared for the Hierarchy of England & Wales,1961. Foolscap, pp.7, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-07-0. £2.20+P&P. 1961/2005.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The balance of training in the Catholic teacher training colleges during the 1960s. A report prepared for the Catholic Education Council and the Committee of Principals of Catholic Teacher Training Colleges. Foolscap, pp.7, mimeo. ISBN 1-905270-20-8. £1.75+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Catholics in the universities of England & Wales, 1960/1. An interim report on the Catholic Student Index Scheme. 1962/2005. ISBN 1-905270-18-6. £3-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed) An annotated bibliography of Newman Demographic Survey reports and papers, 1954-1964. 1963/2006. A4, pp.ii+19. ISBN 1-905270-30-5 £3.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Introduction to the series. 2011. A4. pp.13. ISBN 978-1-905270-58-3. £2.90+ P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of Brentwood. 2011. A4. pp.20. ISBN 978-1-905270-60-6. £6.40 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of Menevia. 2011. A4. pp.19. ISBN 978-1-905270-62-0 (3rd edn.) £6.10 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Archdiocese of Cardiff. 2011. A4. pp20. ISBN 978-1-905270-54-5. £6.70 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The 1955 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Diocese of Clifton. 2010. A4. pp.19. ISBN 978-1-905270-65-1.£8.20+P&P (Incl. Introduction to series).

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The suppression of a research report. Another long slow failure. Reflections on a very secret disaster. 2008/2012. A4. pp.3 ISBN 978-1-905270-66-8. FREE

Spencer, A.E.C.W. and Juanita Byrne-Quinn (Eds.) Projected teacher deficiency of Catholic Maintained and assisted schools, January, 1958-1970. A report prepared for the Catholic Education Council.1958/2006.A4. pp.ii+45, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-14-3 £7.50+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony (ed.) and Mary Daly (ed.) Arrangements for the integration of Irish immigrants in England & Wales. Pp.xviii + 137. Hardback ISBN 978-1-906865-11-5. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. €35.00. See Related Books.

Woolgar, Daniel (Ed.) Census of Catholic clergy and religious, May, 1961. A preliminary report. 1962/2005. A4, pp.ii+6, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-23-2. £1.00+P&P.

Woolgar, Daniel (Ed). Census of Catholic Clergy and Religious, England & Wales, 1961. General Tables. Vol. I. Secular Clergy. 1963/2005. A4, pp.xix+23, facsimile. ISBN 1-905270-08-9. £7-00+P&P.

Woolgar, Daniel, and A.E.C.W Spencer (eds.) Census of the Catholic parish of Liverpool St Timothy, 1961. 1961/2008. A4, pp.ii+18. ISBN 978-1-905270-42-2. £5.40+P&P.

PASTORAL RESEARCH CENTRE. PUBLISHED REPORTS & PAPERS

Spencer, A.E.C.W. A critical appraisal of the structure of Catholic education in England & Wales. (Facsimile edition of a paper read at a Newman Association conference, October, 1963, with a Personal Postcript added in 2005.) 1963/2005. A4, pp.38+ii. ISBN 0-901707-09-0. £7-00 + P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The estimation and projection of Catholic population in an area of diaspora or mixed religion. A paper read at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Statisticians, Oxford, 1964. 1964/2005. A4, pp. 12. ISBN 0-901707-03-1. £2-50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Report on the parish register statistics of the Catholic Church in Scotland, 1966. 1967. 22.1x14.6cm, pp.23+2 maps. ISBN 0-901707-00-7. £3-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Christian Teacher Training Institutions. Register of Christian Church-related teacher training institutions in Africa, Asia & Latin America, 1964-5. 1968. (In English, French & Spanish). A re-issue of a report published in 1968 by Burns & Oates and Herder and Herder. A4, pp.116+xl. ISBN 0-901707-05-8. £10-00 + P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Report on the parish register, religious practice & population statistics of the Catholic Church in Scotland, 1967. 1969. 22.1x14.6cm, pp.45+map. ISBN 0-901707-01-5. £6-00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The future of the episcopal and papal roles. 1970. (Re-print of a paper published in IDOC International North American edition, 9 May, 1970.) A4, pp.8. ISBN 0-901707-02-3. £1-50+P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The organization of Catholic education in New Zealand. An Interim Report. I972/2005. (A facsimile edition of the Interim Report of 1972, with new Personal Postscript by the author and Foreword by John J. Small). Pp.554+ xvi.

Library edition (buckram) ISBN 1-905270-00-3. £64-50+P&P.

Laminated board (with plastic spiral binding) ISBN 1-905270-02-X.£40-00+P&P. Paperback (open-flat, thermo-binding) ISBN 1-905270-01-1. £37-50+P&P

Spencer, A.E.C.W. From crisis of growth to rapid decline. Demographic change within the Catholic community of England & Wales, 1958-1973. 2005. A4, pp.14. ISBN 0-901707-07-4 £2-50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Alienation re-visited. The demography of Catholicism in England & Wales, 1958-1977. (Paper read at a conference of the British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion Study Group, at the University of Surrey, 1979). 1979.2005. A4, pp.13+6. ISBN 0-901707-07-4 £3.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Pastoral and population statistics of the Catholic community in England & Wales, 1958-2002. A report to parishes. 2004. A4, pp8. ISBN 0-901707-06-6. £1-00+P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The development of integrated education in Belfast: a planning study for 1984-9. 1984/2005. A4, pp. ii+67+xxiv+4 maps. ISBN 1-905270-14-3. £15.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Second Spring. The demography of the Catholic community of England and Wales, 1850-1865: marriages, baptisms, converts and Catholic population. 2005. A4, pp.ii+13. ISBN 0-901707-04-X. £2.50+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed). Pastoral and demographic statistics of the Catholic Church in England & Wales, 1963-1991. 2006. Facsimile, A4, pp.ix+259. ISBN 1-905270-16-X. £25.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Facts and figures for the 21st century. An assessment of the statistics of the Catholic community in England & Wales. 2006. A4, pp.ii+55. ISBN-13 978-1-905270-32-3 £10.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Digest of statistics of the Catholic community of England & Wales, 1958-2005. Vol. I: Population and vital statistics, pastoral services, evangelization and education. 2007. A4, pp.iv+180. ISBN-13-978-1-905270-37-8 £58.00+P&P (Library edition, buckram) 905270-38-5 (paperback) 905270-39-2 (plastic comb) 905270-40-8 (wire). All £18.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed.) Services for Catholic Migrants, 1939-2008. Background data from the archives and databank of the Newman Demographic Survey and the Pastoral Research Centre. 2008. A4, pp.i+35. ISBN 978-1-905270-41-5 £3.40+P&P

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. The publication of ecclesiastical statistics. 1964/2008. Facsimile, A4, pp.iv+11. ISBN 978-1-905270-43-9. £3.20+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony, E.C.W. The organization of statistical, information and documentation services within the Church. 1964/2008.Facsimile, A4, pp. v+12. ISBN 978-1-905270-45-6. £3.50+P&P

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. The age structure of the Catholic population of England & Wales, 1947-1980. Estimates made using the Archer-Dean-Cox crude cohort method. 2009. A4, pp. i+18. ISBN 978-1-905270-49-1 £4.00+P&P.

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. (ed.). Census of the Catholic parish of Barking St Mary & St Ethelburga, 1965. 1965/2009 A4, pp. xii+12. ISBN 978-1-905270-48-4 . £4.20+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Bibliography of Christian Church directories and Year Books, Great Britain and Ireland (with Pastoral Research Centre holdings). 2009. A4. pp. 4+9. ISBN 978-1-905270-50-7. £4.20 +P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Secrecy in the Catholic Church. The case of Catholic school statistics in England & Wales. 2010. A4. pp. 14+xiii. ISBN 878-1-905270-52-1. £4.20 +P&P. Free

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Reconstruction of the 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. Introduction to the series. 2011. A4. pp. 37. ISBN 978-1-905270-55-2. £5.80 +P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Brentwood. 2011. A4. pp.23. ISBN 978-1-905270-57-6. £9.40 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.).

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Menevia. 2011. A4. pp.23. ISBN 978-1-905270-56-9. £9.20 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) The 2009 Census of Catholic schools in England & Wales. A Reconstruction of some of the 2009 school census statistics of the Diocese of Wrexham. 2011. A4. pp.21. ISBN 978-1-905270-59-0. £9.50 +P&P. (Price includes Introduction to the series.)

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Re-inventing the statistical wheel. Recommendations on the rationalisation of The pastoral & population statistics system of the Catholic Church in England & Wales. 2003/2013. A4. pp.15. ISBN 978-1-905270-70-5. £4.80+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Gains & losses over 45 years. A review of the natural increase of the Catholic population of England & Wales, and implicit gains & losses, as reported by the parish clergy to their bishops, 1958-2002. 2003/2013. A4. pp.16. ISBN 978-1-905270-68-2. £5.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Broken faith: the demography of a Church tearing itself apart. 2004/2013. A4.pp.4 ISBN 978-1-905 270-69-9. £1.70+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Catholic directories worldwide and the Catholic Directory of England & Wales, 2013. 2013. A4. pp.iii+12. ISBN 978-1-905270-67-4. £5.00+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Demographic and sociographic statistics of the English Province of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, 1961-1968. 1968/2013. A4. pp.18 ISBN 978-1-905270-67-5.£3.30+P&P.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Pastoral policy and planning for the twenty-first century. A report for the Diocese of Clifton. 2007/2015. A4. pp.ii+27. ISBN 978-1-905270-72-9. Free

RELATED BOOKS, REPORTS & PAPERS

Spencer, Anthony E.C.W. Crisis, Co-habitation, Contraception & Divorce. Five sets of Proposals for the two synods. 2014. A5. pp.149. ISBN 978-1-905270-73-6 £6.00 +P&P

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (ed. Mary E. Daly). Arrangements for the Integration of Irish Immigrants in England and Wales. 1960/2012. Hardback, 25x16cm. Pp. xviii+137. ISBN 978-1-906865-11-5. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. €35. Amazon

Spencer, A.E.C.W. The Future of Catholic Education in England & Wales. 1971. Catholic Renewal Movement. Paperback. 16.4x12 cm. Pp. 52.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. Ballymurphy. A Tale of Two Surveys. 1973. A4. Pp.150. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept of Social Studies. Paperback.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. and P.A. Dwyer (Eds.) Sociological Association of Ireland. Cumann Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of Second Annual Conference, Dublin, April, 1975. 1976. A4. Pp.137. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept. of Social Studies. ISBN 0-8539-098-6 (Paperback).

Spencer, A.E.C.W., R.J. Cormack, L. O’Dowd and H. Tovey (Eds.) Sociological Association of Ireland. Cumann Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference, Dublin, 1976. 1977. A4. Pp. 50. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept of Social Studies. ISBN 0-85389-123-0 Paperback.

Spencer, A.E.C.W. (Ed.) Dependency: Social, Political, Cultural. Sociological Association of Ireland. Cumann Socheolaiochta na hEireann. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference, Cork, April, 1978, and Transactions, 1977-8. 1979. A4. Pp. 131. Queen’s University of Belfast. Dept of Social Studies. ISSN 0143-9049, ISBN 0-85389-149-4 Paperback.

3.9.15 at 1240

 

Published: 01 July 2014

The Catholic Directory began to publish national statistics with its 1913 edition, which gave

numbers, diocese by diocese, of clergy, churches, schools and their pupils, Catholic population,

children’s baptisms, marriages, burials and conversions. Getting the figures was always a difficult

job. Dioceses often missed editorial deadlines, because parish priests missed their Bishop’s

deadlines. The diocesan totals were often incomplete, or missing altogether (so that the previous

year’s figures were re-published, with or without explanation). In time the diocesan year books,

going to press much later, were able to publish better data. Over almost a century the Catholic

Directory figures acquired a reputation for inaccuracy, unreliability and inconsistency. But they

were the only national figures routinely published, quoted widely by the media – both Catholic and

secular.

When the editor was working on the 2013 edition she finally threw in the sponge. In recent

years the Catholic Directory’s once regular, detailed and very useful statistics about the clergy,

churches and convents had gradually withered. The school statistics had been abandoned – because

the Catholic Education Service wouldn’t, couldn’t or just didn’t supply them – and with the 2013

edition the Church authorities in England and Wales, for the first time in a century published no

national statistics at all about the Catholic community and its pastoral institutions. The statistics had

often been little better than rubbish, but in 2013 there wasn’t even rubbish to offer the media,

academia, Government, the voluntary sector, or the general public

On the publication of the 2013 edition of the Catholic Directory the Pastoral Research

Centre Trust (PRCT) put aside other urgent work and started two new jobs. The first was a report to

the CBC’s Dept of Evangelisation and Catechesis entitled Statistics, Evangelisation, and the

Statistics of Evangelisation. Sent to the Bishops in August this was the fifth PRC report in ten years

recommending a rationalisation of the arrangements introduced in 2000-1 for collecting, editing and

tabulating the parish register statistics. The previous four had been ignored: the dialogue did not

even start. The fifth provoked one response, and there the dialogue ended.

The second new job was the preparation of a table that the editor of the Catholic Directory

could incorporate into its 2014 edition, providing statistics that were derived from those

summarised by the CBC Secretariat - using the figures sent in by the dioceses for 2011 and 2012 –

and kindly copied each year to the PRCT. The role of the PRCT would be to edit these statistics,

investigate questionable figures, as has been done for over a decade, and put them into a table in

which readers could reasonably have confidence. Unfortunately, several dioceses were late in

sending their totals to the CBC Secretariat, and we missed the editor’s deadline. Instead, we have

continued to sort out implausible and non-credible figures, and we are putting them onto this

website so that they can be read and downloaded.

An account of how the PRCT has edited the annual CBC summaries, 2001-12, should be

published early in 2014. The PRCT also plans to publish in 2014 two other reports on the detailed

pastoral and population statistics of the Catholic community in England and Wales. The first is an

analytical report comparing the figures for 2001, 2011 and 2012, similar to Pastoral and population

statistics of the Catholic community in England & Wales, 1958-2002. A report to parishes. Link.

The second is an edited version of all these diocesan statistics summarised by the CBC Secretariat

for the years 2001-12. Much of this work had already been done in preparation for the Supplement,

2005-12 to Vol. I of the PRCT’s Digest of Statistics, 1958-2005, published in 2007.

BRIEF COMMENTS ON THE 2011 AND 2012 STATISTICS

Introduction

The broad categories used in the table – like baptisms, receptions, marriages and deaths –

obscure the most important details. These detailed figures will be published early in 2014, but in

some cases their national totals – not set out in the table – will be referred to in these comments.

And to provide perspective over time some comparable national totals for the year 2001 will also be

cited. Most of these were published in the PRCT’s Digest of Statistics, 1958-2005.

A warning

Although much of the PRCT’s work in 2013 has been focussed on revising and editing the

detailed statistics that the 22 dioceses send annually to the CBC for summarisation, none of these

figures can be treated as definitive. The reversion in 2000-1 to the system model that operated up to

the mid-1950s resulted in 22 different approaches to the collection, editing and tabulation of the

data sent (or not sent) to the diocesan Bishops. The character and quality of the work by curial staff

varies from diocese to diocese and from year to year. The PRCT is constantly having to revise

figures already revised, and this uncertainty about them will continue until the system

re-established in 2000-1 is rationalised.

Entry into the Catholic Church in England & Wales – Big fall in 2012.

In 2001 this had been 67,724. By 2011 it had recovered to 74,767. It then fell 4.5% in 2012,

to 71,380. The main component was the baptisms of babies under one, which fell 2.6% from

44,130 in 2001 to 42,986 in 2011, and then 2.4% to 41,937 in 2012. The baptisms of babies

indicated a birth rate of 11.0 per thousand Catholic population in 2001, 10.6 in 2011 and 10.3 in

2012.

Late baptisms had been 19,528 in 2001, rose 36.2% to 26,601 in 2011 and then fell 5.25 to

25,225 in 2012. The receptions of converts (already baptised) had been 4,066 in 2001, rose 27.4%

to 5,180 in 2011, and fell 18.6% in the next year, to 4,218.

Marriages with Catholic rites in England & Wales – Number of Catholics married up 1.0%

These had been 12,056 in 2001, and fell 19.0% to 9,763 in 2011, and 9,784 in 2012. These

figures include mixed marriages, which fell 23.2% from 8,039 in 2001 to

6,174 in 2011, and then by 1.5% to 6,080 in 2012. Marriages between Catholics were 4,017 in

2001, fell 11.9% to 3,589 in 2011, and then by 1.5% to 6,080 in 2012. Marriages between Catholics

had been 4,017 in 2001, fell 11.9% to 3,589 in 2011 and then rose by 3.2% to 3,704 in 2012. They

accounted for 33.3% of all marriages with Catholic rites in 2001, 36.8% in 2011 and 37.9% in 2012.

The number of Catholics marrying with the rites of the Catholic Church was 16,073 in 2001,

fell 16.9% to 13,352 in 2011, and then rose by 1.0% to 13,488 in 2012. In 2001 the marriage (with

Catholic rites) rate of the Catholic community in England and Wales had been 4.0 per thousand. In

2011 and 2012 it was 3.3%

Deaths – Numbers continue to fall.

Recorded deaths had been 47,553 in 2001, fell 16.1% to 39,885 in 2011, and then by 0.9%

to 39,507 in 2012. The Catholic death rate was 11.8 per thousand in 2011, fell to 9.9 in 2011 and

9.7 in 2012.

Mass attendance – Further fall

This had been 985,600 in 2001, fell 12.3% to 864,700 in 2011, and a further 0.7% to

858,800 in 2012. Mass attendance was equivalent to 24.6% of Catholic population in October,

2001, 21.4% in 2011 and 21.1% in 2012.

Catholic population – An impossible task results in very questionable figures

As long ago as 1948 the official statistics of the Catholic Church in the English-speaking

world were being criticised as unfit for purpose. Over the next sixty-five years increasing numbers

of parish priests have refused to provide estimates, but the Roman Curia has continued to require

these figures each year. Some dioceses have given up: one reported a fall of 41.5% in its Catholic

population between 2002 and 2003, and a fall of 51.0% between 2005 and 2006. Another has sent

Catholic population figures to the CBC throughout this millennium which suggested alienation rates

far higher than its neighbours – and then raised them arbitrarily, making the diocese look like a

Catholic disaster area. A third arbitrarily raised the figure by 30% to 100,000 for two years, let it

drop by 17%, raised it arbitrarily again by 69% to 140,000, and then let it drop back 44%.

Parish priests are instructed to include in their estimate of Catholic population “all baptised

Catholics normally resident within the parish, whether practising or lapsed”. It is their estimate, not

the Bishop’s. Given the arbitrary decisions of some dioceses, and the failure to deal with this long-
standing issue, the PRCT has had to devise a method for substituting defensible estimates based on

independent data. The method will be explained in detail in the PRCT’s forthcoming report on its

revision and edit procedures. What can be said here is that the method is based on comparisons with

neighbouring dioceses and the Sacramental Index, an objective measure derived from entries in

canonical parish records (Baptisms+Receptions+Catholics married+Deaths) and not on guesswork

in the curial office.

Bearing in mind the qualifications set out above, the parish clergy estimated the normally

resident Catholic population at 31 December, 2001, at 4.014 million. By the end of 2011 it had

apparently recovered 3.5% to 4.155 million, but in the next twelve months it apparently fell another

2.2% to 4.064 million. What were the factors involved? Natural increase had been -3,423 in 2001,

+3,101 in 2011 and +2,430 in 2012. Late baptisms and receptions added 23,594 in 2001, 31,781 in

2011 and 29,443 in 2012. And for most of the period there was heavy net immigration of Catholics

from the European Union. Yet the Catholic population apparently fell by c.50,600. So that there

must have been considerable alienation among baptised Catholics, and probably much statistical

error, plus and minus. In 2012 natural increase, late baptisms and receptions should have added

31,873, but the Catholic population apparently fell by c.91,000.

15.12.13

AECWS

Anthony Spencer

Published: 07 June 2014

We tried to order the 2014 edition in late November, but could not get its
ISBN. We got that in early January, and ordered it a few days later, before it was
published in mid-January. Despite many reminders we were still waiting for it on 31
May. Do four-and-a-half months of failure to deliver a newly published reference
book qualify for the Guinness Book of Records? We have asked the Competition &
Markets Authority to give a ruling.

The Catholic population estimates are the main focus of attention in Part I of
this assessment. Part II, which will follow, will assess the figures for Mass attendance,
baptisms, receptions and marriages. To facilitate comparison, the revised Pastoral
Research Centre (PRC) figures for 2012 can be found here.  Table 1. 2011 & 2012. RC Pastoral & Population Statistics (6th Draft)

We will first define the problem, examine the sources of the problem, set out
the evidence on which our conclusions are based, and then suggest solutions. This
blog offers neither analytical data nor comments on the implications of the figures.
The problem

Two dioceses failed to send in their figures, so no national totals are given.
Substituting the revised PRC figures as at 31 December, 2012, the Catholic Directory
(CD) total would be 4,190,187, compared with the revised PRC total of 4,066,700. So
this CD total is ‘only’ 3.0% more than the PRC total. But the devil is in the detail:
there are huge differences between the two sets of population figures at diocesan
level, as described below.

Incomplete returns
So the pastoral statistics problem has two aspects. The first is long standing.
For a century dioceses have failed to send their complete figures before the deadline
to the editor of the CD. Their cooperation has been erratic, incomplete and unreliable.
They seem to be unconcerned about sending the editor an untruthful statistical
account, or no account at all. The other side of the coin is the copy deadline that many
dioceses cannot meet - because many of their parish priests (PPs) are late in sending
the bishop their annual returns, or don’t send them at all. The dioceses are caught
between a rock and a hard place, but it seems that neither they nor the CD publishers
have ever shown any interest in negotiating a perfectly reasonable - and statistically
acceptable - solution, described at the end of this blog.

A highly dysfunctional statistics regime
The second aspect is the statistical regime adopted by the Catholic Bishops’
Conference (CBC) in 2000-1. Its background and origins are described below. In
short, the very effective statistical regime – that had operated satisfactorily from 1958
to 1991 - collapsed in 1991-2 when the Catholic Education Council (CEC) was
superseded by the Catholic Education Service (CES).

In 2000-1 the CBC decided to revert to the highly dysfunctional regime that
the Hierarchy had scrapped in the mid-later 1950s, on the advice of the Newman
Demographic Survey (NDS). The dysfunctional character of this, the current regime,
is described below.

An impossible task
For Catholic population estimates there is, however, a third problem. The
ecology of the Catholic community in England & Wales was transformed by the
1939-45 War. The bishops have never faced up to the statistical implications of that
change, and since the War they have continued to ask their PPs to do the impossible,
or to tell lies.

The sources of the problem of Catholic population estimate
None of the revisions of the detailed pastoral and demographic figures sent
annually by dioceses to the CBC – revisions that the PRC has made for most of the
years 2001-12 - can be regarded as definitive. The system was established on the
advice of the NDS in the mid-1950s, and was implemented quickly and successfully.
When the Hierarchy withdrew its support in 1963-4 the NDS pastoral and
demographic statistics system – like its Catholic school census system – was taken
over by the CEC, which operated them both satisfactorily until 1991, when it in turn
was taken over by the CES. Both these systems then collapsed. No Catholic school
census statistics have been published for any of the years 1992-2006 – other than
those based on tables prepared by the PRC on the basis of copies of the secret tables
that were leaked to the PRC. No detailed pastoral and demographic statistics were
prepared for any of the years 1992 to 1996, or 2000.

The CBC reorganised the system in 2000-1, reverting to the chaotic
arrangements found before the NDS rationalisation in the mid-1950s, i.e. leaving the
22 individual dioceses to collect, edit and tabulate their own figures, and then send
them to the CBC Secretariat for collation. In some dioceses the work is done to a very
high standard. In one or two the results lack any credibility at all. Most dioceses lie
somewhere in between, dependent on the commitment and skill of whoever is charged
with the work in a particular year. The result is that no figures can be trusted: all have
to be checked carefully, year by year, to establish whether they can be accepted as
true. And they have to be revised continuously as new evidence comes to hand. This
applies to all the statistics collated annually by the CBC Secretariat, which the
Secretariat kindly copies each year to the PRC.

However, the problem is much worse for Catholic population estimates. Their
main weakness was described very clearly by Zbyszewski in The Tablet, (6 March,
1948: 144): i.e. the incompetence of those who prepared the figures. But no one paid
any attention.

But there was another source of weakness that Zbyszewski did not address.
Prior to the War the Northern dioceses placed a lot of emphasis on the maintenance of
the Liber Status Animarum, and much parish visiting was done to keep these records
up-to-date. This did not happen in the Midlands, Wales and the South.
These arrangements did not survive the disruption of the War, and the rehousing
that followed it. Yet the Hierarchy brushed aside all the suggestions of the
NDS that the problem of estimating Catholic population should be taken seriously,
and competent professional demographers invited to make recommendations.
In the 1960s, before the demise of the NDS, a number of different methods
were developed to estimate Catholic population. These were further developed by the
PRC while it remained in England, and continued after its re-location to N. Ireland in
1970. Since its re-establishment in England in 2002 it has submitted five reports to the
CBC on the need to reconsider the regime re-established in 2001-2, and examine
difficulties about specific topics, especially Catholic population estimates. But these
reports have been ignored..

The difficulties are illustrated below by particular reference to the
Archdioceses of Westminster and Liverpool, both mainly metropolitan in their
ecology. But they are also illustrated by the ecologically very different parish of
Boston in the Diocese of Nottingham.

The consequences of the existing regime of Catholic population statistics
The Catholic population figures published in the CD are the only ones
available to the Faithful, the media, academia and Local and Central Government.
Like those sent by dioceses to the CBC they are not just meaningless and useless –
they are utterly misleading, because some people (especially in the media) take them
seriously. The figures have to be collected because the Roman Curia demands them.
Useful figures could be collected from parishes in this country. They could be studied
here, and sent to Rome. The NDS and PRC together elaborated some ten different
methods of estimating Catholic population. Some, like regular sample surveys at
diocesan level, would be impossibly expensive. Others could be introduced at
reasonable cost. But that will not happen until the CBC starts – after seventy years –
to seek and heed expert advice.

The evidence

Westminster (434,232)
The PRC estimate is 624,000, 43.7% above the CD estimate. In 2006 the PRC
began reviewing all the detailed statistics sent to the CBC by the 22 dioceses for each
of the years from 2001. The Catholic population estimates for Westminster lacked any
credibility, and all have been rejected by the PRC. They have been replaced by
estimates derived from two sets of data. The first is the Sacramental Index (baptisms
+ receptions + Catholics married with the rites of the Church), computed for each year
for each of the three London dioceses. The second is, for each year, the revised PRC
Catholic population estimates of Southwark, and Brentwood. The latter are then
expressed as multiples of the relevant Sacramental Index (SI). The relevant multiples
for Southwark and Brentwood are then applied to the SI of Westminster to obtain a
very crude estimate of its Catholic population in the relevant year.

The source of the problem was the generally low (and erratic) response rate of
parish priests (PPs) in Westminster to requests for their annual pastoral statistics
returns, combined with the failure of the Chancery Office to prepare estimates for
missing data. This was accentuated in the case of Catholic population figures by the
widespread view among PPs that they were expected to do the impossible, and their
reluctance to submit what were in effect pure guesses.

Liverpool (574,150)
The same procedure was used to replace the official Catholic population
figures. Again large numbers of PPs had refused to submit blind guesses, but the
Chancery Office had inflated the figures to match changes in the total population.
This had quite extraordinary unrecognised consequences. The figure sent to the CBC
for 31 December, 2012 – and rejected by the PRC, like all the earlier figures – implied
that Mass attendance was only 9.5% of Catholic population. This becomes15.2%
when the revised PRC population estimates are used, still well below the PRC’s
corresponding national figure of 20.9% - but probably not low enough to persuade the
Roman Curia to put the Archdiocese of Liverpool into ‘special measures’.
The PRC used the same methodology as that used for the Archdiocese of
Westminster, the comparator dioceses being Lancaster, Salford and Shrewsbury. The
result was a revised estimate of 361,000 in place of the 574,150 reported to the CBC.

Nottingham
For half of the years 2001 to 2012 the PRC rejected the figure sent to the CBC
and accepted instead that published in the diocesan Yearbook (YB), corrected for
missing returns. The figure sent to the CBC for 2012 was confirmed in the YB, and
accepted by the PRC. But one estimate for 2012 – that of Boston, Lincs - illustrates
the problem of the PP who is asked to do the impossible.

The Polish PP at Boston (who had no curate, but two permanent deacons)
reported that at 31 December, 2008, there was a population of 4,500 ‘baptised
Catholics normally resident in the parish’, and Mass attendance of 648. A year later
he reported a population of 8,000 (and Mass attendance of 688). For December, 2010,
he reported a population of 20,000 (and Mass attendance of 642. The next year he
reported no figures at all, and for December, 2012, he reported a population of 20,000
(and Mass attendance of 450). The whole of the horticultural and canning industry of
the area is hugely dependent on having scores of thousands of Eastern European
migratory workers, most of them Catholics. How can a PP in such a situation possibly
do more than make a blind guess at ‘numbers of baptised Catholics normally resident
in the parish’ as at 31 December? The impossible task given to the PP at Boston can
be replicated for many hundreds of parishes across England & Wales.

Arundel & Brighton (174,700)
The diocese reported 170,313 to the CBC, which the PRC accepted.
Population estimates are not published in the diocesan directory (DD).

Birmingham (438,675)

The diocese reported 280,048 to the CBC. For eight of the previous eleven
years the PRC had accepted the figure published in the Birmingham DD. But for 32
December, 2012, the 2014 edition reports a sudden increase of 55.8% to 438,675. The
explanation is that the latter figure is ‘based on the latest Census [2011], a total of all
the Enumeration Districts within the Archdiocese ….it seems realistic given the large
number of Catholics from Eastern Europe and other countries who have arrived in this
country over the last decade ….’ The method used by the editor of the DD seems to
be similar to that used by the NDS in 1955, but it has not been accepted by the PRC as
it is not remotely connected to the sum of PPs’ estimates of ‘baptised Catholics
normally resident in their parishes’ on 31 December, 2012. Like the decision of the
Liverpool Chancellor to prepare an estimate related to changes in the total population
of the diocese, it reflects the recognition of diocesan staffs that the official Catholic
population statistics are useless at best, and mendacious at worst.

Hallam (60,188)
The same figure was sent to the CBC, and published in the Hallam YB. But all
the Hallam population estimates for the years 2001 to 2012 included the two
university chaplaincies. These are not territorial parishes, have no boundaries, and can
have no resident population. The PRC therefore subtracted their ‘populations’, leaving
a diocesan total of 56,700

Hexham & Newcastle (174,640)
The diocese reported 181,193 to the CBC, and published the same figure in its
2014 Calendar, which the PRC accepted.

Plymouth (61,756)
The diocese reported 68,885 to the CBC, which the PRC accepted. It
published a total of 58,752 in its diocesan YB, but this had no figures for six parishes.
Estimates for these would have raised the PRC total to 68,659. As this was within +/-
1% of the CBC figure the latter was allowed to stand.

Portsmouth (117,344)
The figures reported to the CBC have girated wildly over the years 2001-12,
being 126,274 for 2012, which the PRC accepted. The diocese published no figure for
2012 in its 2014 DD.

Salford (267,938)
This is close to the figure sent to the CBC. The diocese does not publish a
figure in its Almanac. But by going through 43 pages of parish information the PRC
was able to get an independent total of 283,290, which was adopted.

Southwark (357,152)
The Southwark DD repeats the same figure in its summary, but its list of
parish estimates totals 385,560, which the PRC has accepted.

Solutions

A solution to the problem of the present highly dysfunctional statistics regime,
suggested in 2004 and repeated many time since, is to set up a mixed advisory
committee of experts and users of the Church’s statistics, to recommend changes to
the regime, and revise the information that PPs are asked to report every year on the
pastoral statistics form that they send – or don’t send – to their bishops.
The solution of the particular problem of estimating Catholic population could
likewise be referred to the advisory committee. But the starting point has to be pilottesting
of alternatives that are promising, having been worked out since the early
1960s. This could be started at once for one or two dioceses, provided the bishop and
the chancellor (or other official charged with preparing the statistics) were supportive,
and half-a-dozen PPs could be found willing to cooperate.

PRC assessments of other statistics reinstated in the Catholic Directory
The next blog on the PRC website will assess the statistics of Mass attendance,
baptisms, receptions and marriages published in the 2014 edition of the Catholic
Directory. A later blog will assess its statistics of clergy, convents, churches &
chapels.

The PRC is currently working on a Report to Parishes on the Pastoral and
Population Statistics, 2001-12, to follow up the report published in 2004 on the
statistics for 1958-2002, available here. After that it will publish its detailed revision
of all the statistics sent by dioceses for each of the years 2001-2012, in two parts. Part
I will give the revised figures, without explanation, analysis or commentary. Part II
will explain the methodology and report on the sources used, but include neither
analytical measures nor commentary on the figures. Much later, the PRC will publish
Vol. I of its Supplement, 2001-12 of its Digest of Statistics of the Catholic Community
of England & Wales, 1958-200, with explanations, some analytical figures, but no
commentary.

AECWS 3.6.14