sentences:  It is clear now that by the time the surveys by Beach and Harrington were carried out (1960), a watershed had been crossed, and that demographics of theological education and of church attendance were in the process of rapid change.Among Catholic seminaries, the number of candidates for the priesthood has fallen drastically in the past thirty years (by 2/3, according to some estimates).On the Protestant side, while the overall number of students has remained strong, at the same time attendance patterns have been in sharp decline, and this has drastically reduced the number of graduates who end up serving in parishes.