How to renew dying parish?

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Adding just a bit to what I wrote above.
I have heard from more people lately that they wish they had a place to sing Christmas carols. These people do not go to Church and have no place to sing carols but they’re nostalgic for them. I think a great idea would be to hold a afternoon Sunday Christmas carol sing along, family friendly, or even better go door to door caroling. Print a flyer and distribute it to the whole neighborhood. Serve hot chocolate. Inexpensive, fun, and bound to attract young and old.
 
Young people typically flock to the most stereoptical Catholic parishes.
  • use of incense
  • use of chant (vernacular or latin)
  • Traditional Hymns written in the 19th century or before >> Think in lines of “Oh Come Emmanuel” for Advent
  • offer free babysitting for adult faith & young adult events - esp for the ones who have kids.
  • offer lots (if not weekly) potluck coffee hour / brunches so young adults can socialize after mass
  • offer Theology on Tap events
  • etc.
Basically anything traditional and/or what you would see at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Christendom College or any other college on the Newman Society List (https://newmansociety.org/)

But DO NOT follow the lead of Catholic Colleges not on their list, like Notre Dame, Villanova, etc.

Also, pay attention to some of the really good Newman Centers around the country & take notice of what they are doing. For example:
Also consider partnering with FOCUS to staff Parish Missionaries What We Do - Parish Outreach - FOCUS
 
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  1. You need a parish priest who wants the parish to grow. Not just mouth service, every priest says they want more people to attend, but by action. Your priest needs to be ready to live through point 2 below.
1a. The priest needs to be ok with growing a church. As silly as it seems, Catholic Diocese are pretty standardized at 17%-20% of registered members attending Mass. Raising this percentage will make your Priest a target of some in the diocese. You have to make sure he is ok with this. Otherwise you will have a lot of frustrated parishioners and a frustrated priest.
  1. Be ready for people to leave. If your parish is dying, the people who are coming are ok with it how it is. If you start doing things differently people will get upset and go. This is the natural pruning process.
  2. Stand for something. The reason Traditional parishes seem to be growing is the stand for something.
Good luck.
 
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That is an interesting point. I would like to see the google analytics for the typical parish web site. It’s a good hypothesis.
 
Yet, Christ told us to to out into the highways and hedges to compel folks to come. He did not say we need to sit in the Church and only pray and people would come in.

The USCCB has great resources for evangelization.
 
The local FSSP parish near me is organizing and doing traditional Christmas Caroling. They are going to walk around the neighborhoods, singing traditional carols.

Your parish could organize something like that.
 
Years ago Catholic Answers magazine (whatever it was called then) had an article about a parish which was losing members to a new non-denominational church. With the bishop’s permission the pastor changed the homily so it was more catechesis, maybe a little apologetics to counter what was being taught at new church.

I don’t know of it’s the same everywhere but it’s usually the same people active in church activities outside of Mass so it makes sense to do something during Mass to get the attention of as many people as possible.

I forget how long it went on but I think it was for 6-8 weeks.
 
As a young person myself, I definitely encourage the suggestions above concerning the Latin Mass. Also, have confession frequently available; that is absolutely necessary.

I would also add that a good website that prominently lists the mass, adoration, and confession times is needed, but a strong social media presence- eh. Social media is very toxic and gossip-oriented. There are a number of young people who avoid it for just that reason. It may be helpful, but don’t depend on it too much.
 
Pray first.
Then try to invite some young people you know to Mass.
The more young people learn about the greatness of Catholicism, the more likely it is that your parish will be revitalized.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
 
Wow. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, didn’t expect so much. Lots of ideas and food for thought, I will be bringing many of these to the Parish Council when we meet again in January.

Having a problem doing multiple replies, not enough people mentioned apparently and too many characters lol.

Edit: worked it out
 
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A few replies…

@yankeesouth No unfortunately. I’m not sure we would have enough ppl to cover it. They took a census in the parish, there are two churches, one mass each (10:30 and 12), combined there are 250 people on a Sunday. Mostly senior citizens.

@1ke @TheLittleLady I’ve started a Facebook page but it’s basic, trying to think what to put in it. I put up the parish newsletter, some photos of events but need to grow it.

We don’t have a database and with European GDPR rules might be awkward.

I like the idea @Guest1 had for movies, I will add a Friday Flick to our FB page recommending Catholic/Christian movies that are freely available on YouTube etc. Maybe we could hold a retro Movie night with some old movie for parishioners.

@HomeschoolDad I’d love to see a Latin mass but very rare in Ireland and couldn’t see our priests doing it, not very traditional.
 
@yankeesouth Our town is divided into East, West and South (no north), there is a LoM in the East so not sure it would work but good idea.

@Midori Thanks we haven’t any Uni nears us but I’ll look out for other organisations we might be able to cater to.

@Ean_Fanaiochta Fáilte don éan is binne ar chraoibh. Thanks I’ll check out that book.

@Tafan2 Currently there is confession once a week but we don’t have confession boxes, which is a bugbear of mine.
 
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@aroosi Thanks we have sent out newsletters, calendars, etc. Good idea on the Catholic movements.

@libbeylu Our priests are very good but elderly and very non-traditional. They’re not diocesan but from an order and are on loan but will probably retire in a year or two not sure if they’ll be replaced. There is talk of the laity taking over many of the duties of the parish but not sure how this will pan out.

@Crocus Thanks, good idea.

@po18guy Amazing, would love to see something like that happen.

@KindnessMatters Unfortunately we are that NovusOrdo parish everyone like to give out about lol.

@Commenter No, faith in Ireland has taken a nose dive. The Catholic Church has died here overnight, we hear very little from the hierarchy and they barely spoke out against abortion and gay marriage. Thanks I get what your saying though.
 
@melonhead Loads of ideas there, like the idea of the rosary that others have also mentioned here. Thanks.

@PetraG Catholic in name but they don’t go anywhere and probably haven’t been to church since they made there confirmation!

@DeniseNY I like the Livestream idea. We do try to link up with the other two parishes in the town but the one in the East isn’t interested, more well off and plenty of parishioners bit of a disconnect between us (but we keep trying). The parish is the West while poor area like ours has more parishioners but only half-heartedly takes part in events.

@Loud-living-dogma Good idea but yeah. Ironically majority of schools here are “catholic” (small c), they children do religion as a subject and will be prepared for there communion but you rarely see the kids or parents after they make their Communion/Confirmation.

@dconklin We do run a Bible study for about six weeks and think one is starting again in January but we never get youth at it though.
 
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