Top 10 Catholic Cities

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Ricardo D. Jusino

10 Best Catholic Cities?
Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) just published an article entitled Top Ten Catholic Cities, USA. OSV's criteria for selecting the cities included "culture, history, physical landscape and spirituality." Here are the ten cities listed in the article:

• New Orleans, LA
• Emmitsburg, MD
• Bethlehem, CT
• St. Louis, MO
• Denver, CO
• San Antonio, TX
• Chicago, IL
• Pittsburg, PA
• St. Augustine, FL
• Los Angeles, CA

Worst Catholic Cities?

The writers of Catholic Vote saw fit to add their commentary and include a list of Worst Catholic Cities. According to the same criteria they claim these include:

• Seattle, WA
• Portland, OR
• Burlington, VT
• Cambridge, MA
• Washington, D.C.
• New York, NY
• San Francisco, CA
• Las Vegas, NV

Evangelization & Orthodoxy

My first observation is that the criteria is skewed against cities that don't have a rich Catholic history; this hurts cities in the Bible belt. Also, some of the worst cities like San Francisco and Las Vegas have great bishops and have vibrant and growing flocks. Evangelization should have been one of the key elements as well as orthodoxy of priests and bishops. Additionally, Las Vegas has one of the fastest growing dioceses in the country, having nearly doubled in size in the last decade.

Availability of Sacraments
While I enjoy visiting the basilicas, cathedrals and shrines of various cities when I travel, I find the most compelling criteria for evaluating the Catholicity of a city is the availability of the sacraments. When I am in a new city, I draw comfort in discovering Catholic churches nearby where I can attend daily mass, go to confession or invest time in Eucharistic Adoration.

What are your thoughts on these Best/Worst lists?