The U.S. Catholic population rose by more than a million last year, but the church registered declines in Catholic school enrollments and in sacramental practice, according to figures in the 2006 Official Catholic Directory.

The 2,043-page tome, also known as the Kenedy Directory after its New Jersey publishers' imprint, came out at the end of June.

It lists all ordained U.S. Catholic clergy, parishes, missions, schools, hospitals and other institutions. It also gives statistical data on the church by diocese and nationally. Its national figures include data from Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, and U.S. territories overseas such as the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam.

Based on annual reports submitted by each diocese, the directory is supposed to be a snapshot of what the church looked like on Jan. 1, 2006.

The Catholic population rose about 1.3 million last year, to 69,135,254, the directory said.

However, the number of students in Catholic high schools dropped to just under 680,000, a decline of 13,000. Elementary schools enrolled 1.76 million children, almost 84,000 fewer than the year before.

The number of teachers in Catholic schools dropped by nearly 8,000, to just under 173,000.

There were some 729,000 high school students enrolled in parish religious education programs, 26,000 fewer than the previous year. Elementary students in religious education numbered nearly 3.5 million, but the total was 81,000 below the previous year's figure.

In all, the number of Catholic children receiving faith formation in Catholic schools or religious education programs last year was 204,000 lower than the year before.

Catholic colleges and universities reported 764,000 students, about 9,000 fewer than the year before.

In key sacramental moments, according to the directory:

---There were only about 212,000 church-recognized marriages last year, 11,000 fewer than the year before.

---Confirmations numbered more than 630,000, down 15,000 from the year before.

---First Communions numbered nearly 833,000, a drop of almost 40,000.

---Infant baptisms totaled 943,000, down by 34,000.

---Adult baptisms and receptions into full communion totaled more than 154,000, about the same as the year before.

---There were 438 priestly ordinations, 29 fewer than the year before.

The total number of priests in U.S. dioceses and religious orders was 42,271. This was 1,151 fewer than the year before. The number of women religious declined more than 2,000, to 67,773. There were 5,252 religious brothers, 265 fewer than the year before.

For the first time since the permanent diaconate was revived after the Second Vatican Council, the total number of permanent deacons in the United States --- 14,995 --- showed a decline, but it was very slight at 32 below the previous year's total.

Although 46 new parishes were opened across the country last year, they did not offset parish closings or mergers. The 18,992 parishes listed represent a net loss of 305 parishes last year and mark the first time since 1983 that there were fewer than 19,000 Catholic parishes in the United States and its possessions.

The 1983 directory, which listed 18,839 parishes, reported a Catholic population of almost 52.1 million, or one parish per 2,765 Catholics. The figures in the 2006 directory indicate the ratio has now grown to one parish per 3,640 Catholics.

The 573 Catholic hospitals listed in the new directory are eight fewer than the year before, but in 2005 they served 84.7 million patients, 2.5 million more than the year before.

One anomaly in the 2006 edition's statistical summary was the apparent quadrupling of facilities for residential care of children, or orphanages, from 235 last year to 1,023 this year. The Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., was listed as having 800 orphanages this year, 794 more than it listed last year.

Barbara Conley, Brooklyn diocesan director of child care and planning, told Catholic News Service that the diocese has six agencies whose services include residential care for children. Using that figure would give a national total of such agencies as 229.

A similar anomaly occurred in the 2001 directory when a typist keyed in 244, the number of students in a private Catholic high school in Guam, on the line that should have had the number of schools, which was one, making the national total 243 higher than it really was.

---CNS