One of the most common news stories about the Catholic Church in recent years involve parish closures. These events often gain local attention and time from time get coverage nationally. When the story is national, the closure(s) sometimes seems as if this is something generalizable. The national data seem to fit this characterization with the Church now operating 1,437 fewer parishes than it had in 1971.

What often gets lost in these stories (and in the national numbers) is that closures are a much more regional and local phenomenon. CARA has often referred to a “Tale of Two Churches” (1, 2) where pastors in different parts of the country tend to be worried about different things (keeping the lights on vs. finding space for more pews and parking spaces).