Mass attendance in parts of Europe

[Happy_B]

Where in England do you live? I never pictured Churches being so full there.

This is not the true picture of the attendance at masses in London. The Westminster cathedral is an exception as it’s widely visited by LOTS of tourists from every continent every day and the whole set up there is to accommodate and welcome the tourists. However, a lunchtime mass in central London, at a small church can be attended by 10-15 people at most.

The smaller churches outside central London have a very small attendance of mostly elderly people (this is during the week). The trend in London (England in general) is to have 10am daily masses, or at lunchtime. Students and workers have no way of attending the 10am masses of course. Evening daily masses are virtually non-existent.

 

[liturgyluver]

Where in England do you live? I never pictured Churches being so full there.

In London. The question of “fullness” of churches is a matter of relativity, dependent both on the number of churches and the size of the churches. Remember in the US there are 78 million catholics and around 17,500 catholic parishes and mass attendance is 24%. In England, there are 5 million Catholics and around 4,000 catholic churches and mass attendance is 23%. A church census is done every Sunday in October in every English Church so the figures are fairly accurate. The North West of England also has higher Catholic populations in Liverpool, Manchester and the county of Lancashire. Whereas in the East and South West there are relatively fewer.

And if you think that’s a lot of churches per capita the Church of England has five times more churches than the Roman Catholic Church with roughly similar number of churchgoers each week!

 

[liturgyluver]

This is not the true picture of the attendance at masses in London. The Westminster cathedral is an exception as it’s widely visited by LOTS of tourists from every continent every day and the whole set up there is to accommodate and welcome the tourists. However, a lunchtime mass in central London, at a small church can be attended by 10-15 people at most.

The smaller churches outside central London have a very small attendance of mostly elderly people (this is during the week). The trend in London (England in general) is to have 10am daily masses, or at lunchtime. Students and workers have no way of attending the 10am masses of course. Evening daily masses are virtually non-existent.

Virtually every parish in central London has evening masses and most have daily masses Get yourself a copy of the Westminster Diocese yearbook which lists all the mass times. I agree with you that 10am is a silly time for mass but almost every parish outside central London has at least one lunchtime and one evening mass. My own church has a sung mass with benediction every Thurday night.

Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden has mass every day at 1pm and 6.30pm.
Brompton Oratory has weekday masses at 7am, 8am, 10am, 12.30pm 6pm
St Patrick’s Soho has a daily mass at 12.45 almost always full
Marylebone has weekday masses at 8am and 12.30pm
Our Lady of Carmel in Kensington has masses at 8am, 12.15 and 6pm
Our Lady of Victories - the church with the awful music - has mass at 10am only.
The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street in Mayfair has masses at 8am, 1.05pm and 6pm
St James Spanish Place has weekday masses at 7.15, 12.30 and 6pm

Of course all these churches with the exception of Our Lady of Victories in Kensington have a full choral mass on Sundays - most in Latin.

 

[liturgyluver]

litluv is in London.

I love going to Mass in England. On a recent day trip there, I attended a weekday Mass at a church in Kent and was amazed at the beauty of the liturgy. The day after I came home I told my pastor about it, he said that in his opinion the English have always had a sense of beauty when it comes to the Mass. On top of that, I was welcomed like an old friend even though I had never set foot in that church before and was only there for about an hour (duration of the Mass + prayers before and after). The next time I’m in that area I won’t hesitate to drop in!

That;s good to know - there is certainly a more traditional feel to the music at the mass if you find the right churches to attend. Germany is another country which has beautiful liturgy and wonderful hymns. Unfortunately in many places in Europe - even in Italy - the music is generally trite and virtually nobody sings.

 

[ProVobis]

In London. The question of “fullness” of churches is a matter of relativity, dependent both on the number of churches and the size of the churches. Remember in the US there are 78 million catholics and around 17,500 catholic parishes and mass attendance is 24%. In England, there are 5 million Catholics and around 4,000 catholic churches and mass attendance is 23%. A church census is done every Sunday in October in every English Church so the figures are fairly accurate. The North West of England also has higher Catholic populations in Liverpool, Manchester and the county of Lancashire. Whereas in the East and South West there are relatively fewer.

And if you think that’s a lot of churches per capita the Church of England has five times more churches than the Roman Catholic Church with roughly similar number of churchgoers each week!

Thanks. I always found the history of the Catholic Church (or Christianity, for that matter) in England to be far more interesting than in the U.S. It’s hard to conceive of today, but before Henry VIII confiscated all Church property, the Catholic Church had actually owned about 20% of all the property in England.

 

[liturgyluver]

Thanks. I always found the history of the Catholic Church (or Christianity, for that matter) in England to be far more interesting than in the U.S. It’s hard to conceive of today, but before Henry VIII confiscated all Church property, the Catholic Church had actually owned about 20% of all the property in England.

A sobering thought indeed!

I think it’s interesting that Catholicism has a little local twist wherever you go. We are all part of the Universal Church but nevertheless local influences play a part in execution of the liturgy. So there is a different feel in Northern and Western Europe from Southern Europe (where my family originated). Having travelled all over Europe, I would have to hand the prize to the Polish and the Maltese for pure Catholic devotion.

 

[ivan94]

I’m from one of those countries you “never hear of”
There is no specific number on how many people go to church regularly (every Sunday) in Croatia, but what most priests say is 15-20% of general population (bear in mind that 86% Croatians consider themselves Catholic), and more than half go at least a few times a month, and I think almost everyone goes to Church at least for Christmas, it’s a tradition for weak-faithed also.
My parish is one of the smallest in the capital city, its territory has around 1500 inhabitants (not all are Catholic), and around 220-250 people come to masses each Sunday, so that’s around the 15% I mentioned.
Croatia is considered to be a staunchly Catholic and traditional country, and I can tell it is.
I think the mass with pope Benedict XVI, during his pastoral visit three years ago, showed how Catholic we truly are, there was more than 400 000 people attending, that’s around 10% of Croatia
EDIT:
About the differences between west and east (or better call it central) Europe. I suppose that numbers of faithful and numbers of people attending mass regularly has a lot to do with communism which promoted aggressive atheism, so after the fall of it people finally had the opportunity to live their faith without fear of persecution. That’s one major difference between countries like Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary as opposed to England, France and Italy.

 

[liturgyluver]

I’m from one of those countries you “never hear of”
There is no specific number on how many people go to church regularly (every Sunday) in Croatia, but what most priests say is 15-20% of general population (bear in mind that 86% Croatians consider themselves Catholic), and more than half go at least a few times a month, and I think almost everyone goes to Church at least for Christmas, it’s a tradition for weak-faithed also.
My parish is one of the smallest in the capital city, its territory has around 1500 inhabitants (not all are Catholic), and around 220-250 people come to masses each Sunday, so that’s around the 15% I mentioned.
Croatia is considered to be a staunchly Catholic and traditional country, and I can tell it is.
I think the mass with pope Benedict XVI, during his pastoral visit three years ago, showed how Catholic we truly are, there was more than 400 000 people attending, that’s around 10% of Croatia

I had a wonderful time in Zagreb ten years ago and enjoyed attending mass at the Cathedral there.

 

[ivan94]

I had a wonderful time in Zagreb ten years ago and enjoyed attending mass at the Cathedral there.

That’s my hometown