I'd love to see a study of Catholic parish closings.

The study would look at the "vitality" of parishioners' interior lives!

To get at this dimension, we could use reasonable proxies: Compare "closing parishes" with "non-closing parishes", using the following metrics...

- Number of daily Masses
- Earliest starting time of the first daily Mass (if it's after 8:30, that parish is in danger of needing to be closed). 
- Hours a week that Confession is offered.
- How many days of the week other than Saturday is Confession offered.
- How many Marty Haugen songs are sung each week? (negative indicator)
- How frequently is Confession mentioned in homilies, in a positive sense.
- Is the sanctuary open all day long allowing people to visit Our Lord.
- How frequently is the Sanctuary used to pray the Holy Rosary as a community?