Here's some hope - especially for all of us on RCIA - and those who have yet to join:

According to American Papist (a very reliable Catholic blog) about 150,000 new or returning Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in 2009 in the United States. This compared with 135,000 people who came into full communion in 2008.

(Read it here: http://www.americanpapist.com/2009/04/15...this.html)

I'm taking this as a sign that people are returning to the church and that Father Anderson's plan to pray for lapsed Catholics is working - and that there's a renewed interest in true spirituality.

The press release noted that "the numbers show the growth and vitality of the Catholic Church in places where it has traditionally been a small minority."
The Archdiocese of Atlanta estimates that 513 catechumens, who have never been baptized, and 2,195 candidates, who were baptized in another Christian community and are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, will enter the Church this year, not including infant baptisms.
Father Theodore Book, director of the office of Divine worship for the archdiocese, affirmed: "The Archdiocese of Atlanta is in a part of the country with a large non-Catholic population, and has been blessed with an authentic dynamism during recent years, which is perhaps best expressed in our annual Eucharistic congress, which draws some 30,000 participants.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced Tuesday that about 150,000 are expected to join the Catholic Church here Easter.The press release stated that The figures show the growth and vitality of the Catholic Church in places where it has traditionally been a small minority.