Several parishioners don't attend Mass

[bknebel]

Hello,

I would say we have around 30 people in our parish that don’t attend Mass regularly, nor do they participate in parish functions. I belong to a small rural parish, where the town and church are virtually synonymous. That said, how do we, as a small parish currently without a priest (on leave at Bishop’s request), and no diocesan administrator named, go about getting these people back to Mass?

We have priests each weekend, so the sacraments are still being made available; its just there is no priest during the week and no pastor named. This has only been like this 3 months, but the 3 years previous, our priest who was sent on leave made little to no effort to encourage his flock or visit those that were sick, homebound or away from Mass.

What should we as a parish consider doing to encourage these people and also to build up the vibrancy of our parish?

I’ll take any ideas Thanks!

God Bless

 

[PhilotheaZ]

I think the best evangelization is done person-to-person. You establish trust and rapport with a person by showing genuine concern and Christian charity toward them, and with time (and plenty of prayer to the Holy Spirit), discover an opening where you can broach matters of faith. When I made a Cursillo weekend years ago, we were taught that you “make a friend, be a friend, and bring a friend to Christ” — usually in that order.

When the right time to bring up the subject of coming back to the Church arises, you might want to first gently ask their reasons for being away. There may be some misconceptions to clear up, some wounds to heal. Be informed about your faith, and be loving and never confrontational. Invite them to come to Mass with you next weekend. Tell them about the joy you have found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

For some people, the website catholicscomehome.org/ may be helpful.

 

[puzzleannie]

do you still have a functioning parish council or finance council? the head should speak to the bishop about doing a parish census and a comprehensive financial and statistics report–membership, sacraments conferred etc.

You need to be pro-active on this so the bishop does not look for an excuse to close the parish. A census is done by a trained team of parishioners–even high school youth can be trained for this–who go door to door to every household within the parish boundaries, working in pairs (teens need adult supervision) and a card.
They introduce themselves, they have official name badges, Hello we are your neighbors from St. Mary’s, we are asking today if there are any Catholics in the household. The card should be provided by the diocese, and simply asks names and contact info, and if anyone in the family is in need of service from the parish–communion for the sick, sacraments, CCD etc. If there is no response, the card is left on the doorknob, usually with a stamped return envelope.

sometimes a small gift can be left–refrigerator magnet, pen, with Church name and phone #–make sure there is someone to answer this phone, even if it is the parish council president’s personal cell phone.

the interview ends with an invitation to some social event–even coffee and donuts after the Sunday Mass, where those who DO attend Mass stay to welcome new comers.

From that your parish council can come up with an action plan, because now you know more about your parish, the needs, the reasons people have not been coming, and you can speak more intelligently to the bishop, and with the visiting priest, about these needs.

caveat, this is not a DIY project, must be done in coordination with the bishop;s office

 

[bknebel]

Thanks. We do have functioning pastoral and finance councils. They seem to be in a ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ attitude regarding those who have left. I have approached a few people and invited them; and when a young family did return to Mass and the sacraments, I welcomed them and said, “Good to see you here!” We are a close, German farming community who seem to leave affections at home, so openly welcoming people tends to fall by the wayside, but I’m going to try and get a few minds together, like-minded or not, to work on this

I’m hoping we can start a weekly hour of adoration for the parish on Wednesdays from 6-7, right before Religious Education.

Pray also that our pastor is healed and can return to the diocese.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Look also at the Legion of Mary for advice. This kind of work–door to door invites–is exactly what the Legion was founded to do. They have a very informative website. Check there for the closest group to you. You’ll also find tons of info directly on the website. Of course prayer is the most important thing and the Legion does have a recommended schedule of prayer to bring back those fallen away from the faith.

 

[Phemie]

I had to smile at the idea that ‘several’ parishioners don’t attend Mass. We’d consider ourselves very fortunate if that were the case with us. We supposedly have ~1500 parishioners (425 +/- families) of which about 300 attend regularly.

 

[puzzleannie]

I had to smile at the idea that ‘several’ parishioners don’t attend Mass. We’d consider ourselves very fortunate if that were the case with us. We supposedly have ~1500 parishioners (425 +/- families) of which about 300 attend regularly.

according to the last US census, there are 28,000 people lving within our parish borders, of whom 18,000 self-identify as Catholics within our parish borders. Considering our overwhelming Hispanic majority population that seems reasonable. We have 3,000 registered, and 1,000 attend Mass regularly. The Valley has seen phenomenal growth in the last 10 years, while parish membership and CCD attendance, and contributions have grown also, but very slowly 2-6 % a year. I also got a chuckle from OP.