By Father James Maciejewski

Catholic population in the Atlanta archdiocese grew from 56,000 in 1970 to 59,000 in 1971, but Atlanta once again is listed as the second smallest archdiocese in the nation, according to the Official Catholic Directory, just published.

Only the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, with 30,000 Catholics, is smaller.

The Catholic population of the United States increased by 176,000, but the number of priests and Catholic school students nationwide continued to decline in 1971.

The annual reference book lists the total U.S. Catholic population as 48,390,000 or 23.3 percent of the total population. Last year the directory showed that Catholics had slightly larger share of the total population, 23.5 percent, with a total Catholic population of 48,214,000.

Catholics continued to have fewer babies, a trend that began in 1962 and was interrupted only in 1970.

The number of adult converts dropped to the lowest yearly total since 1940. The directory reports 70,000 converts, or 5,000 fewer than in 1970.

In Atlanta, however, the number of converts jumped from 268 in 1970 to 325 in 1971.

Other statistics indicate future growth for the archdiocese. The number of Atlanta diocesan priests was up from 64 to 69, seminarians from 26 to 27.

Weddings increased from 670 to 820. Funerals were down from 300 to 238.

Nationally, however, the number of priests was down by 740, for a current total of 57,421. The number of seminarians was down 2,745, for a total of 22,963. The number of nuns was down 6,731, for a total of 146,914.

Enrollment in Catholic elementary and high schools also dropped sharply, but enrollment in Catholic colleges increased 2,648 to a total of 428,853.

Fifteen dioceses reported no change in Catholic population, 48 reflected decreases, and 101 reported increases. The largest increases were in Boston, 103,684; Los Angeles, 48,768; Detroit, 31,747; El Paso, 26,331; Youngstown, 26,216.