Mass Attendance recommendation from pastor

[fix]

People do not want to be somewhere where they feel unwelcome.

I agree. The problem is at times such a feeling is unjustified and even if unjustified the answer is not to play exclusively to those feelings. I ask simply for balance.

 

[Sr_Sally]

My children were baptized in that church (the one that is 90 minutes away). My wife and I were married in that church. I was baptized in that church. My parents were married in that church. Etc.

That makes sense. I guess I would just see it the other way. I would belong to the parish near my home–where I most regularly attend Mass, where my children are in CCD, etc. And I would be visiting the other parish where these historic events took place. If you had happened to move farther from that parish–say a 2 hour one way trip (or more)–I doubt you would consider it to still be your “home” parish.

 

[stbruno]

Since our neighborhood is changing ethnically to more Hispanic, our parish needs to institute a liturgy in their native language because they are going back to their former parishes so they can celebrate mass in Spanish. Until we provide more ministry to them, I don’t expect our numbers to reflect our community at large. More reasons to pray.

 

[THurifer2]

I just don’t think an exhotation that “you must come to Mass every Sunday” on Christmas and Easter is going to rope that many people back to the pews. QUOTE]

Back when priests had the spine to tell the truth like that churches were FULL. at least where I come from.

 

[MusicMan]

Like it or not, times have changed.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

I think “bound” may be a strong word. The document is Canon Law: I’ll let someone else provide more clarification on who commissions and keeps the maps and how often the bishop changes the borders, but I believe in general the diocese is divided into geographic parishes. If you have a new house, it is a simple matter to look at the map from last year, or 20 years ago, or whenever, to determine which parish the house was built in. Similarly, they didn’t have to wait until your neighborhood was built to figure out what county it was in.

The canons show the way in which parishes should be structured (ordinarily erected geographically, not personally) but there is no longer any canonical obligation to attend one’s geographic parish in the absence of an applicable personal parish. You’re right, though, finding one’s geographical parish is a very straightforward endeavor.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

I just don’t think an exhotation that “you must come to Mass every Sunday” on Christmas and Easter is going to rope that many people back to the pews. There is the saying, “you have to crawl before you can walk.” Get these people coming once a month. Then encourage twice a month, and then before long, you could have them back and attending.

I also don’t think hearing about the Sunday obligation the one time a lapsed Catholic attends Mass is very likely to bring him back more regularly, so we’re agreed there. I just can’t condone the pastor’s strategy for bringing them back slowly since it runs an obviously high danger of conveying falsehood. There are simply better ways to go about things than effectively misleading people.

 

[MusicMan]

I question, however, whether we have enough contextual information to draw such a conclusion. We only have a bulletin snippet to work with. We don’t have the entire article, nor do we have a transcript of his sermon, or even the Mass itself.

When the pastor of the Byzantine Church I attended on New Year’s Day ripped his congregation apart over their attendance, it happened at the end of the DL, not during the Sermon or in the bulletin… there were other reasons why he did it when he did.

Thus, I think we need more information than a simple bulletin snippet before we get too upset with this priest.

 

[duskyjewel]

As a weekly Mass attendee, I have to say that every Christmas and Easter it bugs me that I can’t get a seat at my own parish. The one I support, the one I volunteer at, and then these interlopers finally show up for once, and my family either can’t get a place to sit, or we get broken up. We stood through the entire Easter Mass this year, except when we were kneeling on the floor, and this was in the overflow Mass because the main church was full. (I am pregnant and showing, and we had to somehow keep the four children contained…the 2 and 4 year olds were fun!) Am I glad that people at least feel enough draw to give a couple hours a year to the Lord? Yes. Am I aware that my feelings are unChristian and definitely uncharitable? Yes. But I am also aware that if that many people came every week, we would have had the new church we need long ago!

My husband was thoroughly disgusted with some of the perfectly young and healthy people that would look right at fragile elderly people or obviously pregnant women and then turn around and get comfortable in their seat. I am not that big, and do not feel I need accomodation yet, but there were others there that could have used some kindness. Are people who act like that really getting anything out of Mass? They don’t even get basic courtesy, never mind Christian kindness. And P.S. they were not all faces we have never seen, some of them were regular attendees.

I think the honey vs. vinegar argument will go on forever. The PPs who have said that a few times a month is better than twice a year are right. But I also agree that priests need to have some backbone, and not be afraid to tell the truth even when it is unpopular. However, those twice a year types are also the ones who, if they started going more often and then heard a sermon that offended them, would probably start going less often again. Unfortunately, I think priests and parishes have very little power in these situations. People are going to choose whether to have God in their lives, or they are going to choose not to. The place where the parishes have power is good catechesis with children, so that they will feel they need a faith life. The reason we see so many people who sort of “feel Catholic” but don’t really make it part of their lives is decades of bad catechesis, from both church and parents, though the parents were most likely badly catechized too.

The American Church is paying the price for watering down the faith and concentrating on warm fuzzies from the 60s through the 90s. If God is just a warm fuzzy, is He really that important?

 

[mercygate]

Why do folks think truth is unloving or unattractive?

Apply this logic to the rest of the Gospel and see if it leaves folks satisfied.

Because it serves as an indictment of those who reject it.

 

[kangnamdragon]

I think it was meant for the Christmas and Easter Catholics. A few times a month is moving in the right direction from two times a year.

It’s still wrong. One cannot tell someone to sin twice a month instead of four times a month.

 

[fix]

Because it serves as an indictment of those who reject it.

It would be a self indictment? If we do not like the truth we should consider reordering the way we live.

 

[teachccd]

You seem to be arguing the distinction between a full time and part time job (as a Catholic), but the title doesn’t reflect that. Instead, the plain meaning is that of an incomplete description, which could apply to either a full-time or part-time job. Like you, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the wording just doesn’t support it.

I just try to find the good in most…Can’t fault me for trying…