It's the "sacramental data," stupid!

Tom Roberts (National Catholic Reporter), in a new installment of his "Emerging Church series, "The 'Had It' Catholics," chronicles the rise of 'fallen-away' Catholics, noting that ex-Catholics, if considered a religious denomination in the U.S., would be the second largest, between the larger group of Catholics and the next smaller group, Southern Baptists.

But for the key point, he highlights the insight of Mark Gray, a research associate at Georgetown's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.  Gray notes that the raw population shift is not overly significant, as immigration does compensate and, frankly, the Church is so large that it would require a much greater loss to have a huge impact.

What IS worrisome, according to Gray,