Catholic Church still struggles against attendence trend.Almost two out of three Catholics in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky won’t go to church this weekend to celebrate Mass, an event they have been told since childhood is the center of their spiritual lives.The church’s most recent count of people in the pews found that about 290,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and 60,000 in the Diocese of Covington skip Mass in a typical week.
What kind of Mass is celebrated in these Parishes? are they liberal Parishes or Traditional Parishes? we need to know before we can judge why this is happening.
What kind of Mass is celebrated in these Parishes? are they liberal Parishes or Traditional Parishes? we need to know before we can judge why this is happening.
If the article’s claim that all the people in question were instructed that the Mass is the center of their spiritual lives, then whether or not the Mass is being celebrated in parishes of a traditional or liberal style (a vague and somewhat subjective notion) would matter little. The injunction to attend Mass every Sunday is bound by conscience - that alone ought be reason enough to attend, regardless of the kind of celebration of Mass they would find themselves in once they obeyed the injunction, and Catholic duty to attend Mass.
So, I think the proper course of investigation would be to consider why it is so many Catholics do not feel duty bound to attend Mass for their own spiritual welfare, or, how come the injunction on their conscience does not work to compel them. This trend may be more of a side-effect of other factors working on these folks. I would question, then, whether or not these Catholics in fact did receive the proper instruction stressing the gravity and importance of attending Mass, and, if that is not the issue, then what factors in their lives have worked to abbrograte or compel them to ignore the injunction.
What kind of Mass is celebrated in these Parishes? are they liberal Parishes or Traditional Parishes? we need to know before we can judge why this is happening.
I presume they all celebrate the Novus Ordo Masses. I don’t think that makes them liberal as opposed to those few Catholics in that diocese who celebrate only the Tridentine Rite.
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