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CRISIS Magazine, from the Morley Group, published in its most recent edition a survey of all 176 dioceses and archdiocese of the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

The survey functions something like a much more limited US News and World Report ranking for dioceses. It looks at three indicators of diocesan health: the growth or decline in the number of active priests, the number of new ordinations as a percentage of the number of priests, and adults received into the Church (adult converts).

On the whole, Wisconsin’s five dioceses did not do very well as compared to other dioceses nationwide. The Diocese of Green Bay was one of the ten worst diocese nationwide for the percentage decline in the number of active priests, down 36% from ten years ago (1995/2005).

Averaging the rankings among the 176 dioceses in the three catergories, we find that Green Bay comes in at 164, a drop of 59 spots since 1995. La Crosse comes in at 161, a drop of 43 spots since 1995. The diocese of Madison comes in at 170, a drop of 6 spots since 1995. The archdiocese of Milwaukee comes in at 162, an improvement of five slots since 2005.

Only the diocese of Superior stays out of the bottom twenty dioceses in the nation. Superior came in at a respectable 76, in the top half, then, on the overall, and at 50 in rank for ordinations and 48 in rank for adult receptions. This represents a gain of 21 spots since 1995.

Now, it should be noted that the rankings should not necessarily be correlated with the bishops whose sees they currently are. Archbishop Dolan took over an already struggling Milwaukee in 2002, only serving 2 1/2 of the 10 years surveyed. Bishop Banks in Green Bay did not take over until Dec. of 2003. Bishop Listecki of La Crosse has only been in that post since March 2005.

Only one of Wisconsin’s bishops was head of a diocese before his current post. Bishop Morlino in Madison did not assume his post until August of 2003. Before that he was Bishop of Helena, Montana, for several years, which came in 64 nationwide, a jump of 78 spots from 1995, and 3rd nationwide in adult receptions in 2005. Before that he was rector of the Cathedral and a diocesan bureaucrat and priest in Kalamazoo, MI, which came in 3rd nationwide on the overall.

So on the whole, I’ll simply say kudoes to Bishop Fliss of Superior. He has served Superior as her bishop since 1985, and in the second half of his tenure piloted his diocese on up these rankings. Moreover, I think he has the best website of all five Wisconsin diocese.

CRISIS asked seven leading American Catholics to reflect on the report overall; you can read their responses online.

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