3 of my sisters have stopped going to mass

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3 of my sisters have stopped going to mass. They were educated at a catholic school. Do you have family members that no longer go to Sunday mass?
Is this situation pretty common?
 
Yes. I didn’t go for years, one sister still doesn’t go. It’s best thing to do is just let it be and pray for her.
 
Let your sisters see your love and joy, they will want what you have.
 
I think it’s common. Pray for them. My sister came back after many, many years and lots of prayers.
 
Regrettably many Catholic schools smack of social elitism and 1st world problems and their effectiveness at making people fall in love with the faith is questionable. I wouldn’t be too alarmed that they don’t attend Mass in spite of “going to a Catholic school”.
 
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Yes, my daughter no longer attends Sunday mass for about a year now. It breaks my heart. All I can do is keep the lines of communication open and PRAY for her return.
 
I have a sister-in-law, a daughter-in-law and two nieces who don’t go. Two sons and brothers-in-law that don’t go either. I pray for them all daily.
 
Four of my mother’s seven siblings (two sisters and two brothers left) have left the Church as they all grew up attending mass and now those four range from non-denominational to mormon.

Prayers are with all those who struggle with their faith
 
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How old are your sisters if I may ask? Are they teenagers? Young adults?

I know a huge problem facing the Church right now is young people fleeing left and right. The USCCB did a questionnaire online recently asking young people why they stayed in the Church. The overwhelming answer was because of the Traditional Latin Mass. Many commented that the modern liturgy just doesn’t seem very sacred or moving to them, but when they were exposed to the older traditional liturgy it really opened their eyes to God.

I don’t know how the liturgy is done at your parish, but irreverent liturgy is a big reason many youth are turning away from the Church. When asked, They reply seeing nothing supernatural, transcendent, or sacred about the liturgy nowadays. As someone who has attended both Ordinary and Extraordinary Form parishes, the difference between the two is like night and day. And I’ve observed a lot more teenagers and young adults at EF parishes as well. The youth of today are very much drawn to the pre-Vatican II liturgy of the Church, the observations, numbers and studies done on the subject have proven this.

If you are wanting to get them back into the Church, invite them to experience something very new. Find a TLM parish in your diocese and attend a High Mass on Sunday. Your sisters just might find it very moving and maybe it will enkindle in them the fire of love for God once more.

Praying for your sisters!
 
Saintp said:
Do you have family members that no longer go to Sunday mass?
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Yes. We all used to go. Now only my mother and I do. (There are four of us in the immediate family, so 50% no longer attend. At nearly 50, I am the youngest.)
Saintp said:
Is this situation pretty common?
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If the responses you’ve gotten so far are an indication, it would seem so. 😦
 
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The members of my family who have left would be even less likely to come back if the only Mass they could find were in Latin. That is a great thing to attract some, but if that’s the only strategy, it is going to fail with them because they find Latin unintelligible not inspiring.

Those who have left because they have an issue with the Church in her integral identity? (I mean her unchanging teachings.) I don’t know what will reach them except for grace, so pray for them. Others who drifted away sometimes only need an invitation to come back without a lot of pressure. They may come back if they find they’ve grown since they left or realized needs since they left or left because they made incorrect assumptions about the Church they were leaving.
 
Saintp said:
3 of my sisters have stopped going to mass. They were educated at a catholic school. Do you have family members that no longer go to Sunday mass?
Is this situation pretty common?
Click to expand...
What’s more important (and it’s something you can control) is that you don’t stop attending Mass.

And while you keep on attending the Mass, be sure to pray for your three sisters at every Mass you attend.
 
Scott84 said:
The USCCB did a questionnaire online recently asking young people why they stayed in the Church. The overwhelming answer was because of the Traditional Latin Mass.
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Interested to read it. Please, link?

Found it. Seems it was a Twitter question, not a formal poll.

USCCB Twitter Team — Today’s ‘Real Catholics of Genius’

Ordinary lay and clergy Catholics gave an avalanche of responses to the U.S. bishops’ Twitter team, which asked people why they were Catholic, and brought their voices into a meeting where they ordinarily are not present.
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com

Many gave varying responses, although the most important by far and away for why people stayed Catholic was Jesus Christ and his presence in the Holy Eucharist.

Saints and EF were other responses.
 
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Only other Catholic in the family doesn’t go. Try and remember that they are still part of the church, keep praying and that we all have a wilderness time in our lives and for some that means running away. God never stops calling us though
 
My sister doesn’t, because her husband is a Presbyterian. He insisted that if they attended Mass on Sunday they’d also have to attend his service, because St Paul said the husband is the head of the wife. It got to be too much to handle with young children. They’ve gone only to the Presbyterian service for years. My nephew didn’t even know he was baptized Catholic until he was about 14 years old. His sisters were baptized Presbyterian.

My brother and his wife dropped out, also. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think he lost faith after a few personal trials he and his wife went thru.

All my cousins basically dropped out years ago.

In my wife’s family; her sister converted to Judaism, her aunt got divorced from a creep and then married a Presbyterian who also had been divorced, and the Church doesn’t give any realistic options for her to remain practicing.

All of my wife’s cousins either grew up in other churches or grew up with no religion whatsoever (their mother also married a divorced man, and basically said to the Church, ‘You don’t want me? Fine. I don’t want you.’).

So, it’s sad. From my perspective it’s sad because we lose an identity as a family. As for their eternal salvation, that’s their business and not mine.
 
It would be cool if we could begin a campaign to get as many parishes as possible to coordinate a day to offer masses for those who have fallen away from the church.
 
This is my perspective as a non Christian in talking to the ex Catholics that are now atheist/agnostics. Many of them felt the Church didn’t have answers to their questions and they didn’t like the answers they were given.

The beliefs and practices of the Church are what they are and shouldn’t change. That would only drive away those still there but many/most of those that have left will not likely return either. I think all churches are stuck between a rock and a hard place with a faith that many don’t feel speaks to them and won’t change to accommodate them. It seems to just be a case that all churches are shrinking now.

Things could definitely change. The Great Awakening could take place again. The youth may find that they really were missing something that they rejected earlier but for now, even those that claim they are spiritual are not flocking to churches to feed them. The societal changes that have taken place just doesn’t place great value on a church to fill their spiritual needs.

I hate to say the churches just need to be patient but what else can they do? If they change, they may gain some and lose more or they can stick to the faith that has lasted 2000 years and hope for society to change back. It may get worse before it gets better (or it may just get worse).
 
Both my dad and step-mom were raised Catholic. On my dad’s side, I think all but his oldest brother left Catholicism. My dad and his youngest brother are still Christian, but I’m not sure about his other siblings. On my step-mom’s side, one brother and one sister have remained Catholic. Her, another sister, and another brother all left with the brother not being Christian. I think everyone had some Catholic education, but I’m not 100% sure.

Needless to say, I’m the odd one in that I went from Protestantism to Catholicism.
 
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CARA (Center fo rApplied Research in the Apostolate) did a study - likely for the USCCB. Their finding was that in the age range of 18 to about 29, only 18% went to Mass regularly.

The highest rate of weekly Mass attendance was the over 50 crowd, and that was less than 60%.

So it is of no particular surprise, if one looks at the matter statistically, that your sisters don’t attend regularly.
 
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