Thanks, Papa!

Needless to say, Pope Benedict XVI's visit was a huge shot in the arm for AmP's readership numbers. The blog was featured on the Today Show and MSNBC.com, and I was able to do interviews with CNN, BBC World News and Our Sunday Visitor. AmP was also recommended as a "go to" blog for papal coverage by countless blogs and websites.

Thank you for the trust.

Hopefully people were able to find out more about our beloved Holy Father. After all, he's why I'm here.

As a result of all this exposure, some AmP numbers for you, in case you find these things interesting:

• Bloglines subscribers are up to 160.
• Almost 400 subscribers through Google Reader.
• Over 23,000 picture views recorded on Flickr.
• AmP's YouTube videos have been watched almost 17,000 times, with 46 subscribers.
• The official AmP Facebook page has almost 350 members now.
• In the last week, well over 40,000 visits and 100,000 pages viewed.

... and a couple folks even dropped a little something in the Paypal donation box. Thank you!

And please remember, following Pope Benedict XVI is a year-round gig around here - so stick around!

Another AmP milestone

(Wrote this when it happened, but forgot to post it!)

February 29th, at 2:53:03 someone from Lake Jackson, TX became the 750,000th AmP Sitemeter visitor.

He or she spent 39 seconds on the blog, and found this post of particular interest.

SiteMeter does not count visits to the blog from 3rd-party readers and RSS feeds. The background comprehensive website statistics currently clock AmP at roughly 1.5 million visits to date.

Without pausing for breath, on to the next 750,000!

Pew Forum presents picture of fluid U.S. religious affiliation

Allright, back to things more properly AmericanPapist.

This article is quickly making the rounds (Time Mag's version here, AssociatedPress here):

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The report, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

Infographic:

Our numbers:

The percentage of Catholics in the American population has held steady for decades at about 25 percent. But that masks a precipitous decline in native-born Catholics. The proportion has been bolstered by the large influx of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America, the survey found.

The Catholic Church has lost more adherents than any other group: about one-third of respondents raised Catholic said they no longer identified as such. Based on the data, the survey showed, “this means that roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics.”

... which means we have plenty of work to do.

Get the original report here at the Pew Forum. They have a summary with links here.

To add a little context, the UK Times reports that "Over half of Britons claim no religion."

I'll save my comments until I have some time to wade through the data.

update: In the meantime, see what Amy has to say, CNA, and BettNet.

video: "Pew Forum Director Luis Lugo gives an overview of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey and talks about some of its key findings" (source):

Entrance Poll: Romney & McCain split Catholic vote in MI

CNN's exaustive entrance poll reveals that Catholics who voted in the GOP Michgin primary chose:

• Romney, 38%
• McCain, 36%
• Huckabee, 8%
• Guiliani, 7%
• Paul, 4%
• Thompson, 4%

By comparison, here are the over-all numbers:

• Romney, 39%
• McCain, 30%
• Huckabee, 16%
• Paul, 6%
• Thompson, 4%
• Guiliani, 3%

From these statistics, one can roughly observe that McCain overperformed among Catholics somewhat, as did Guiliani, while Huckabee underperformed, and so did Paul.

Far MORE than 1/3 of Catholics believe in the Real Presence

Or so a new report from The National Catholic Reporter (yes, yes, I know...) concludes:

"81 percent say that “belief that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist” is essential in their understanding of the Catholic faith. Keep in mind that the survey is of a cross section of the 65 million Catholics in the U.S. (although Latinos are greatly underrepresented). Among the more highly committed Catholics, it is reasonable to assume that belief in the Real Presence is considerably higher than 81 percent. This is worth keeping in mind because some years ago a clumsily worded question in a survey came up with the conclusion that only one third of Catholics believed in the Real Presence, and that “finding” still crops up in discussions on the state of Catholicism. Among active Catholics, belief in the Real Presence, as also in the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of Jesus, edges up toward unanimity."

[Read more at FirstThings.]

Ph/t: Jimmy Akin.

October was a good month for AmP. (Thank You!)

October was a very good month for AmP, assisted in part by my inclusion in the 2007 Blogging Scholarship Award contest as well as the publication of several lengthy posts that were picked-up across the blogosophere on the topics of Plan B in Connecticut, Abp. Niederauer giving Communion to homosexual activists as well as my advance review of the new pro-life movie Bella. Your comments, emails and news tips have been invaluable.

A special welcome for anyone who has newly subscribed to AmP, and renewed thanks to the regulars.

November promises to be another exciting time frame, with the meeting of the U.S. Bishops mid-month, and the Consistory of Cardinals at the very end, as well as ongoing additions to my series of essays on contemporary issues in bioethics (and of course, the occasional PPOTD). In addition, I have several AmP exclusive stories in various stages of composition. A site redesign might even happen, who knows? So crank up the Habemus Papam song, brew some tea or coffee for your favorite Cardinal Benedict Fanclub mug, and stay tuned! - Thomas

AmP's 2000th post!

Even my rudimentary math skills are functional enough to tell me that averages to a little over 250 visits-per-post! (okay, I had to use a calculator.)

And since sitemeter doesn't count readers who access AmP's content through RSS readers, bloglines, feedburner or the like, the actual sitewide statistics count well over a million visits.

Nonetheless, I think it's a good measure of the continuing health of the blog that I have so many other stories I'm working on currently that I don't have the luxury of taking the time to dwell upon this milestone.

To the folks who have just stumbled across this papist's ponderings for the first time today, and to those loyal friends who have been here from the beginning, my humble thanks!

Now, on to the next story....

AmP statistics, visitor trends, and a special note to my readers.

This is an impromptu state-of-the-amercianpapist-union address, beginning with a graphic that shows the place of origin for the last 100 visitors to these pages:

*Almost* every continent is represented in this snapshot. I do spot visitors from South Africa occasionally, once in a great while from Russia or India. I hope to see an increase in South American visitors this week. Australian readers make up a surprising number of viewers (3rd most, behind Canada), so good for the Aussies!

Other notables this week include Israel (8th), Hong Kong (13th), China (14th) and South Africa (22nd). The coveted "vatican.va" destination IP I see once in a great while, more often I think they must get their internet access from Rome, Lazio. I doubt readers near the poles would show up, but that leaves no excuse for Alaska.

Visitors from search engines comprise about 10% (oddly enough, this old post draws many visitors), links from other blogs 15% or so, the rest from bookmarks and RSS aggregators like Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.

The record for number of visitors in a month I keep to myself, but so far I'm on track to beat it this month.

Sitemeter, I realize, currently has total visits just over 400k. I'm not sure if that's everyone, however, because my webhost (which counts RSS aggregators and the rest of the site) reads over 750k - that's over 300GB of data!

All this from almost 1,750 separate blog posts and countless, countless hours of blogging since I started writing last January.

But the unmeasurable quotient is you, my wonderful readers, who make AmericanPapist worthwhile and a joy.

I've especially appreciated the many kind notes of encouragement, the numerous tips, pictures, links and gifts, the invitations to Catholic events, the votes in web awards (such as this year's CBA), and - perhaps most of all - the many times that people have come up to me in real life having recognized me through my blog. Indeed, meeting my readers has been a delightful way to put a human face and a personal dimension to all the time I've spent at home or in computer labs, libraries, and on the road cobbling together my coverage.

So, in short: Thank you, my papist friends! Here's to many more years together!

-AMDG.-