Will Catholics resume going to again Mass once states lift all the COVID-19 restrictions? Or will the restrictions result in yet another decline in Mass attendance?
Only God knows the answer to these questions. But this does not mean we should just sit back and wait to see what happens.
This past week, my parish held a group meeting for interested parishioners regarding next steps for our parish. It was evident that our new pastor did not want to take a wait and see approach regarding the future of the parish, post restrictions.
Our pastor shared information from a recent survey regarding our parish’s mission. The results included responses about what we love most about being Catholic and what already works in the parish. Our pastor also provided us with a list of questions he hoped we could collectively answer.
A Good Meeting
Participation at the meeting was excellent, with attendees ranging from youths in high school, to college students, to elderly retirees. All of us, clergy, religious, and lay people alike, learned much.
At the start of the event, organizers formed parishioners into break out groups with similar demographics. The intent was for people with like interests at similar stages in life to collaborate and build recommendations. Using our pastor’s questions as a guide, the groups offered feedback and suggestions aimed at improving parish life and restoring a vibrant sense of community.
A key question asked of the groups of parishioners was, “Post-Covid-19 restoration – How do we bring back our flock?”
Is this the Right Question?
Although restrictions and protocols vary from state to state, most parishes have seen a huge decline in Mass attendance. Our parish is no different. Even the number of live streaming views of Mass is dwindling, with fewer views compared to April of 2020. How does a parish get parishioners going to Mass again when all of this is over?
One of the men in my break out-group was passionate, or better yet, adamant that the premise of this question is wrong. When will the fear and restrictions around Wuhan Covid-19 pass? Will the fear and restrictions ever pass? How long should we wait before we do something? Should we wait another year, or two years, or five years?
His point is obvious. None of us know how long.
If that is the case, why wait? We should begin restoring parishes today, immediately. We cannot use Wuhan Covid-19 as an excuse for postponement.
As such, the more appropriate question is, “What can be done NOW to restore our parish?”
An Old Problem
Loosing parishioners is a not a new problem. Catholics falling away from the one true Faith is the real pandemic decimating the Church in the United States.
Our pastor added during the meeting that he sometimes dreads Confirmation. He lamented that more often than not, he will never see the newly Confirmed at Mass again.
Since the 1960’s, the Catholic Church has lost four American-born Catholics for every convert gained. Mass attendance before COVID-19 was already down, with only about 25% of Catholics attending Mass on a weekly basis. And Pew Research concludes that more than 25% of the United States population is religiously unaffiliated.
Fallen-Away Catholics
Reaching out to fallen away Catholics absorbed much of the discussion. Numerous points were made on what does not work. Comfortable, but ineffective, ways include pulling a list of inactive addresses followed by sending e-mails and mass postal mailings asking people to return. A parish can even post invitations on their website, which fallen away Catholics will never see.
Feedback from every breakout group, and most passionately from the youth, centered on what to do. In order to draw fallen away Catholics back to the Church, the offered solution was personnel invitations to return.
Although life has become very much automated, with the likes of Amazon.com delivering goods to one’s door with zero human contact, personnel connections still drive humans emotionally. And this suggests the solution. One-on-one interaction between people is the answer.
Directly inviting someone to Mass can be extremely uncomfortable and requires time and effort to first build a relationship with the person being invited. However, the personal interaction cannot be deleted with a screen swipe, the press of the delete button, or filtered as SPAM. Both parties recognize the risk made by the one extending the invitation, just as both parties recognize the risks of accepting or declining the invitation. The vulnerability is what sets one on one interaction apart.
The Worth of an Invitation
During our time together, we discussed the impact of invitations. Small steps added together can equal a mile. Say a parish has 1,000 families. If each family invited one person to mass this next week, what would the outcome be? If only 1 out of 100 people accepted the invitation, that would be 10 people returning to Mass. But what if each parish family continued for 1 year, extending an invitation every week to someone? Over 1 year, the parish might see 500 people return to Mass.
This is the challenge. Invite someone to mass this week – maybe a friend from work, a neighbor, or a fallen away family member. We must make a deliberate effort. We must find someone different each week. Declined invitations will probably be quite common. But this is no reason to be discouraged.
Restoring our parishes requires outreach..
I would like to ask you to accept this challenge as well. We need to extend invitations. We need to do it. Electronic messages are not effective. Personnel invitations are a far better solution.
We need to do it and we need to do it right. And we need to do it right now. There is no point in waiting.
9 thoughts on “Do It, Do It Right, Do It Right Now”
But, may I ask why you did repeat Wuhan? I know it wasn’t necessary for the quality of your article and the excellent points you made. You were so careful in including the sad demographics and statistics, so I am left wondering what was the point to its inclusion as well.
Why would I not write Wuhan Covid-19? Choosing to write “China COVID-19” or the “CCP Virus“ would be politicizing the subject. Omitting Wuhan in front of COVID-19 would be politicizing the subject as well.
Why, thank you for the elegant remark and spiritual offer and I’ll say a rosary (my fav devotion) for you. The remark made is sincere, the slight outrage felt at a subtle political reference turned off any further comment I might have made on a subject, beaten to bits daily, by conservative Catholic essayists who seem so very far behind the paradigm shift already well in progress. Twelve years of cradle education by a Jesuit based school and two orders of Sisters, made it very obvious that what we learned, what they instilled in us, was Theology, as opposed to religion. Unlike yourself (for the grace of God …) I never had to walk myself back. Like your Ranger advocate says, human effort is futile – it would be easier to get everyone dancing to the Beatles again then revive what is finished in our church. It’s no coincidence that Francis sits on the Chair – who follows will need to ride in the ruts of where he headed the church. Don’t look back, we’re not going that way; the math analogy is too simplistic to even speculate on and I’m surprised you can’t see that. As bombarded as the church is, nothing will ever stop it from making, all, one. To do that requires thinking way, way, way outside the box. But we can’t do it as a mystical body without you – and you certainly are not going anywhere without us. Peace, J.A.C Man.
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“suggestions aimed at improving parish life and restoring a vibrant sense of community.”
Did your parish have a “parish life” or any “sense of community” (much less a “vibrant” one) 18 months ago? No, it didn’t. Over the last couple of generations, parishes stopped functioning as “community”. They stopped having social events like dinners, carnivals, mixers, dances, and picnics which had existed for generations previously. These events apparently lost their appeal and they were simply stopped, and replaced with… nothing.
Without the community aspect of parish life providing an incentive to attend Mass and other services, attendance started its long slow decline.
It would have been difficult to re-start parish life before the pandemic. Now that most parishes will experience at least a further 50% drop in attendance, it seems like a lost cause.
I also encourage you to learn the difference between the words “personal” and “personnel”. Ditto for whoever reviewed this article for publication.
Thank you for the comment. It prompted me to reflect on my parish life. Yes, many parishes in the United States are stagnant. However, over the last decade I have experienced what I would call a vibrant parish life. Let me share with you what I mean.
After repatriating to the United States from Asia, my family elected to live in a city of approximately 100,000 with several active parishes. Each parish has its own personality, but each is engaged in its own way.
On the Feast of Christ the King, our parish would hold a grand feast after parading the Eucharist through the streets. I never experienced that growing up. During our Octoberfest celebration, which became a city event, the mayor and our Pastor would share a drink from the first barrel of beer (made specifically for the festival) to assure that it was fit for consumption. On Good Friday, the streets around the parish were closed for live stations of the cross.
All the parishes also shared resources to support the local Catholic schools, hold retreats for students, organize pilgrimages, travel as a caravan to Right to Life March in Washington, D.C., and send people on missions in the United States and abroad.
Nearly all of these activities were tabled this last year.
On the second mention of “Wuhan” in reference to covid I would have assumed you were infected with a bad case of Trumponian racism then asked to leave.
Yaawn. Grow up little snowflake.
But to the point of the article…we, CC in America, have reached the point of no return as regards attendance at Holy Mass. The ingredients simply are not available to make it so.
The bishops have shown their very weak hands and have caved to Caesar in too many ways in order to receive crumbs from the table.
Human effort will not correct this situation.
I am very disappointed with this comment. I would like to challenge you to try and read past your outrage and try to understand the point of the article. With your permission, I would like to pray for you.