What Happened?

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tequilamac

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Yesterday, for Immaculate Conception, our priest scheduled two masses one in the AM and one in the PM so that everyone would have a chance to come. Holy Day of Obligation.
Less than 20% of the parish showed up. Believe it or not, my two high school kids were the only kids in the entire parish who attended! When my daughter’s boyfriend tried to get ready to go with her and my husband to the PM Mass, his mother yelled at him and told him no. His parents did not attend either. Usually they are quite faithful every Saturday night. But she said a 7:00 PM Mass was too late for him to be out even though today is Saturday and no school. :confused: He’s 16.
What kind of a crazy person yells at their kid when their kid volunteers to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation? And arranges for his own ride because his parents aren’t going? Am I missing something here? I’d be doing cartwheels of joy. My daughter was very upset. But both kids complained they felt wierd because no other kids attended either Mass. But for the most part, either did their parents.
I do believe yesterday was a Holy Day of Obligation or did something change I didn’t know about?
The attendance was alarming.
 
tequilamac said:
Yesterday, for Immaculate Conception, our priest scheduled two masses one in the AM and one in the PM so that everyone would have a chance to come. Holy Day of Obligation.
Less than 20% of the parish showed up. Believe it or not, my two high school kids were the only kids in the entire parish who attended! When my daughter’s boyfriend tried to get ready to go with her and my husband to the PM Mass, his mother yelled at him and told him no. His parents did not attend either. Usually they are quite faithful every Saturday night. But she said a 7:00 PM Mass was too late for him to be out even though today is Saturday and no school. :confused: He’s 16.
What kind of a crazy person yells at their kid when their kid volunteers to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation? And arranges for his own ride because his parents aren’t going? Am I missing something here? I’d be doing cartwheels of joy. My daughter was very upset. But both kids complained they felt wierd because no other kids attended either Mass. But for the most part, either did their parents.
I do believe yesterday was a Holy Day of Obligation or did something change I didn’t know about?
The attendance was alarming.
Click to expand...
Most Catholics just do not want to attend Holy Days of Obligation. The rules don’t apply to them, because they don’t like the rules. 20% of the parish is a good turnout!

I would guess most see about 10%. Every one who didn’t attend because they choose not to must go to Confession before they can go back to Holy Communion. How many do you think will do that? Since he tried to go but was prevented by circumstances outside of his control there is no guilt on his part. Let him know that.

I’ll bet the pastor will not have the gutts to announce before Saturday and Sunday Masses that if you didn’t attend the Holy Day Mass you must first go to Confession before receiving Holy Communion again. Why don’t you make this suggestion to him.
 
Turnout at our parish was very good at the 7PM Mass. I think most of the people in our parish love the late evening masses and they are very popular over here.
 
Our church had a very good turn out for the 7AM Mass and I am sure the other 2 Masses were well turned out too. But we have several churches in town with different times and so maybe many went elsewhere. I often do. Yesterday, the Bishop served at a noon Mass at another church and if I had been able I would have loved to have been there and I would bet many from other parishes were there for that reason. Just a guess…

:heart:Blyss
 
We had a decent turnout at our only mass at 6:00pm. Then we had a cermony for those who did the act of consrecration after mass. After that my 15 y.o. son went to a H.S. dance. It wasn’t too late when he got home later in the night. Tim
 
tequilamac said:
Yesterday, for Immaculate Conception, our priest scheduled two masses one in the AM and one in the PM so that everyone would have a chance to come. Holy Day of Obligation.
Less than 20% of the parish showed up. Believe it or not, my two high school kids were the only kids in the entire parish who attended! When my daughter’s boyfriend tried to get ready to go with her and my husband to the PM Mass, his mother yelled at him and told him no. His parents did not attend either. Usually they are quite faithful every Saturday night. But she said a 7:00 PM Mass was too late for him to be out even though today is Saturday and no school. :confused: He’s 16.
What kind of a crazy person yells at their kid when their kid volunteers to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation? And arranges for his own ride because his parents aren’t going? Am I missing something here? I’d be doing cartwheels of joy. My daughter was very upset. But both kids complained they felt wierd because no other kids attended either Mass. But for the most part, either did their parents.
I do believe yesterday was a Holy Day of Obligation or did something change I didn’t know about?
The attendance was alarming.
Click to expand...
I’m glad that you finally noticed. This situation has been going on for a long long time. This is not a new development. And it is happening everywhere.

Parishes nationwide report that most Masses run at about 30% of those registered in the parish. There are exceptions to this of course, certain areas have higher attendances as well as certain parishes. On the average though its about 30%.

The dropping attendance the the western world, North America and particularly Europe is one of the main reasons Rome is scrambling trying to figure out what went wrong,
 
palmas85 said:
I’m glad that you finally noticed. This situation has been going on for a long long time. This is not a new development. And it is happening everywhere.

Parishes nationwide report that most Masses run at about 30% of those registered in the parish. There are exceptions to this of course, certain areas have higher attendances as well as certain parishes. On the average though its about 30%.

The dropping attendance the the western world, North America and particularly Europe is one of the main reasons Rome is scrambling trying to figure out what went wrong,
Click to expand...
People nowadays feel no need to go beyond their Sunday hour a week (which is still laudable in today’s secularised world) because they have not been taught the faith. The younger generation are picking it up again, IMHO, but the missing generation at mass is Generation X. The JP2 generation is getting there. That bodes well for the future, I think.
 
We had 2 masses. I attended the PM mass. I was kind of disappointed at the turnout plus there were 2 teenage girls in front of me that talked the entire time :mad:
 
Very sad. I only hope my parish’s other Masses were better attended than the one I went to (9am) … of course, they’ve got the earliest morning Mass (6:45 daily, which is reasonably well attended regularly by people who are headed to work), a good lunch hour time (for those who manage to get away from work at lunch hour) and for the Holy Day, they added a 7pm (for those who can’t get away from work).

My older two boys were serving, and oldest said that the attendance was 35. sigh They were also the only altarboys … but that surprises me less as there was school that day (another benefit of homeschooling … I can punt the schoolwork off until after Mass and they’re available to serve).
 
People go to Mass? On a Holy day? Whatever.

My regular parish is 45 minutes away, so I attend a different one for Holy days. It is quite large, seats about 1000.

They had four Masses that day, so I can’t judge for the other three, but I went to the 7pm one and attendance was sparse compared to a regular Sunday at that parish. Normally it is standing room only in that HUGE parish, but on a Holy Day you could lay down on the pews and still not touch anyone.
 
Sure there are people who forget or just don’t go, but oftentimes people will go to a lunchtime Mass if they work in a downtown area. I know that at our parish, there was an 8:30am English, 12:30 English, and 7pm Spanish. The evening was the only time I could make it so I went to another parish with evening English Mass.

Don’t know what percentage that makes up for but it’s something. 🙂
 
Titus said:
People nowadays feel no need to go beyond their Sunday hour a week (which is still laudable in today’s secularised world) because they have not been taught the faith. The younger generation are picking it up again, IMHO, but the missing generation at mass is Generation X. The JP2 generation is getting there. That bodes well for the future, I think.
Click to expand...
We can only hope, we can only hope.
 
My parish was jam packed - standing room only. I think we had four masses & I attended the one at 7pm. I just LOVE my parish - we have very conservative Priests & lots of great families. 👍 I feel so very blessed.
 
On further reflection, I am wondering if it had something to do with a lack of understanding about the Immaculate Conception. We only have one parish in our area so I know that as someo fo you suggested, people did not attend elsewhere. There is no elsewhere. Also, our funerals are very well attended.😃 😃 My parish can “put on” a funeral like no one else. Our Sunday attendance is pretty regular as well.
I am thinking it was the subject of the Holy Day that turned people off. Just being here at CA I see misconceptions about Mary and about Immaculate Conception. People insist she was capable of sin and did sin, had personal sin, was not preserved from original sin, and that Immaculate Conception means that Jesus was conceived non sexually. I am wondering if the people in my parish have these same erroneous ideas and so the feast day either is irrelevant to them or it makes no sense to them. Maybe that is why they did not attend. Still checking. Thanks for your responses.
 
The vast majority of the people were at work yesterday, and many attended at a church adjacent to their offices, so they weren’t around their own neighborhoods and parishes.

The same folks also weren’t available to drive their non-driving family members to church.

Attendance might not be what it should be, but it is definitely higher than what it might appear considering it is a school and work day for the vast majority of Americans.
 
My parish had better attendance yesterday for Immaculate Conception than last month for All Saints. As for the meaning of the Holy Day, the priest explained what it meant that Mary was conceived without sin and quoted from St. Augustine. He also mentioned St. Augustine’s statements against the heresy of Pelagianism (don’t know if I spelled it right) and how all of us need God’s grace (can’t work it out on our own–which is what the heresy said) and we should look to Mary and ask for her intercession since she has always been full of grace and completely pure.
 
palmas85 said:
I’m glad that you finally noticed. This situation has been going on for a long long time. This is not a new development. And it is happening everywhere.

Parishes nationwide report that most Masses run at about 30% of those registered in the parish. There are exceptions to this of course, certain areas have higher attendances as well as certain parishes. On the average though its about 30%.

The dropping attendance the the western world, North America and particularly Europe is one of the main reasons Rome is scrambling trying to figure out what went wrong,
Click to expand...
If you think that North America is bad you should look at Rome. I was there this summer and I went to my old parish where I grew up. The church was pratically empty for a Sunday morning service at 10:30. And you should consider that it is located on the seaside with a lot of turists during summer. My son noticed that a girl decided to imitate us when we bowed during the Credo and before receiving communion, no one else would do it.
 
I went to Immaculate Conception Parish in the downtown area about 50 miles from where I live and where I usually attend mass. The mass I went to was at noon, and it was packed (people standing in the back). It looked to me that most were working people on the lunch break.

I often go to this church on Holy Days even though it is not my regular parish. Plus, it has become a tradition for my family to go there on the Immaculate Conception.

It is a beautiful old church and the priest is a wonderfully conservative. Daily mass is at noon and they have confession everyday from 11:15 until mass begins. Everytime I have gone to church there, no matter what time of year, there are always lots of people standing in line at confession. It is truely wonderful to see.
 
Cristiano said:
If you think that North America is bad you should look at Rome. I was there this summer and I went to my old parish where I grew up. The church was pratically empty for a Sunday morning service at 10:30. And you should consider that it is located on the seaside with a lot of turists during summer. My son noticed that a girl decided to imitate us when we bowed during the Credo and before receiving communion, no one else would do it.
Click to expand...
Yes, I’ve heard that Europe is sadly in even worse shape than the US is. I don’t know if it’s true but they have rumored that the main reason the French Bishops were so upset over the news of a possible universal indult was because the majority of Catholics that go to Mass in France attend either SSPX and schismatic Chapels or indult Masses and that attendance at Pauline Masses there is horrifyingly low, almost non existant in some areas…

I have no independent confirmation for that, but it certainly would explain the hysteria that erupted over the news of the possibility of the indult.
 
I reminded my college sons who attend different schools not to forget to attend mass. This is finals week…and I don’t know if it was because the kids need divine intervention this week for the exams…but their Newman centers where they worship were packed. God is good! All the time!
 
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