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According to statistics released by the Vatican in March, the number of Catholics worldwide increased by 15 million in 2010.   Bishops from American southern states have just informed the Pope that they are contributing to that bubble.   Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, TX: "The one thing that gained his attention when we were speaking is that we are the region in the United States where the Catholic population is growing and growing intensely." The cardinal and other bishops of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas were the 10th group of bishops to visit the Vatican in the last six months. They were able to celebrate Mass at the major Vatican basilicas and visit with Vatican officials.   Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, TX: "Those celebrations of the Eucharist together to renew our sensibility of our commitment to the apostolic faith and to join in offering Christ's sacrifice also brings a grand communion of all the bishops together." Their Mass at the tomb of St. Peter was actually celebrated in a mix of Spanish and English. This is telltale of the situation the region lives today. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, TX: "We celebrate Mass in between 14 and 18 languages every weekend. It is a wide variety of Catholic faith in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. We have analagous situations also in Dallas-Fort Worth, to a certain extent in Austin. The Southwest is the place that so many people are coming from within the United States, so they're moving down from the Midwest and the Northeast, but we also receive a huge number of people from outside the United States: certainly from Mexico and central and south america, but also from the Pacific Basin. Houston has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Orange County, California. 135,000 Vietnamese in Houston, of which about 30,000 are Catholic. By the way, we got a lot of catechumenes from the Vietnamese Buddhist community. It's very interesting what's happening there." So, what is the difference for the dioceses of Texas? Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, TX: "I find the people positive about their Catholic faith, perhaps because they come in from different spots. The Catholic Church in Texas has a long history, but you have to remember... Let's take a look at a city like Houston. 25 or 30 years ago, it's 10 to 12% Catholic, it's now 23 to 24% Catholic. There's been a huge influx of people, a mixture of people from all over the world and from other parts of the country produces a grand enrichment and a very positive flavor to Catholicism. Plus, there's that Texas informality a number of people find very welcoming, which we're discovering in our Catholic faith. A welcoming environment for people is extremely important, then you can deepen more in terms of formation and catechesis. My own diocese has a number of those international movements which are present. I have a joke, they ask me about some given movements and I say, 'I don't know for sure, but I'll find out next week, because they're also in the archdiocese because we have everything from Africa to the Philippines to Europe. All of the international Church movements are Houston." As the movement towards a new evangelization continues, there may be some lessons to be learned from down south.