From costly sex-abuse payouts to a growing shortage of priests, the Church is facing enormous challenges. There are more Roman Catholics in the world than ever before. Numbers have risen to 1.26bn, up from 626m in 1970, according to Georgetown University’s Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (Cara), with Asia, Africa and the Americas providing the bulk of the increase.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/89322/is-the-catholic-church-in-crisis
http://www.theweek.co.uk/89322/is-the-catholic-church-in-crisis