Well, THIS is a downer.

Oh my. What caused this?

On June 12th I happened to find this little tidbit buried in the St. Louis Post Dispatch in their online site: Stltoday. (I do not get the print edition of this paper for about 20 reasons). The strange part is that it wasn't a link from somewhere else and it wasn't part of another story.  It was just sitting there.  Being sad.  Waiting to be read.

Diocesan Priests*
                     1985    2011
St. Louis       568       365
Belleville      158       119
U.S.          35,052  27,284

Parishes
                    1985    2011
St. Louis      245       188
Belleville     130       119
U.S.           19,244  18,201

Nonpriests appointed by bishops to run parishes in the U.S.
1975  1985  1995  2000  2005  2010
     0      93    314    447    553    469

Source: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
*Includes retired and inactive priests in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Diocese of Belleville, Ill.; does not include religious order priests. *