It’s true up in the burbs of Philly also, partly because parishes there were made huge so you have thousands of families assigned to one church, which often has an operating elementary school as well. Even if half those people don’t go to church every week, the churches will still be pretty full; at Christmas and Easter it can be standing room only.
I could point you to other churches I attend in city areas of several major cities, where there are fewer church attendees because there are more Catholic churches within a small area and the original Catholic families who used to go there have moved elsewhere. Probably out to the burbs where the great big church is.
