Why has Mass attendance declined?

[jmcrae]

Increased secularization and increased spiritual laziness and material workaholism.

I would agree with this - the pressure to socialize with co-workers and work on Sundays is incredible, these days - if you’re not a “team player” (ie: Sunday worker) or if you don’t attend weekend “team-builder” events, then you’re unemployed.

The days of weekends off are long gone - and if you don’t have to work on Sundays, you’ve got family breathing down your neck to take them out to the mountains, etc., or your kid’s hockey club is having a game on Sunday, or your other kid has to go on a weekend field trip for this or that.

I think it’s understandable that some people just let go of the least demanding thing on their schedule, which, unfortunately, is attendance at Mass.

 

[chicago]

There is a lot more going on Sundays now which distracts people. Used to be that stores weren’t even open.

I think that a major factor is economic advancement. For an immigrant population, the parish is often the center of their lives. It provides a point of contact and support in an environment with people who you can relate to and understand your background. As such, there is a greater sense of commitment to all things Church.

As incomes rise and people get “established” (perhaps moving to a “better” neighborhood), there is a greater sense of independence, a lesser sense of connectedness, an impression that parish life (and reliance upon God) isn’t as much needed. There are more opportunities and greater demands for your time, money, and commitments. Church becomes secondary, at best.

What can save this a bit is if one has developed strong ties and returns to the old neighborhood to maintain them. Or if there is some sense of family which develops and supports you at a new church.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Two words:

“mortal sin”

During the “post Vatican II” era, the words “mortal sin” disappeared.

Replaced by “serious sin”.

The word “serious” had already been totally corrupted. So that something “serious” could range from a really great surfing run to an extremely powerful sneeze.

Bring back “mortal sin” and people will return to Mass.

Keep in mind also, that during the period of peak Mass attendance, there was a requirement to fast from midnight before receiving Holy Communion. Mass attendance on Holy Days of Obligation was as high as it was on Sundays. On top of which the church buildings were not air conditioned in summer; so folks had to “suffer” the inconvenience of bearing the brunt of the heat. I can recall that ushers used to set out portable metal chairs at the church entrance … the combination of no food or drink since midnight AND the extreme heat used to cause people to faint.

AND the Mass was mostly in Latin.

I know people who did not “speak” Latin, but everyone brought with them to Mass their Latin-Engilsh missals.

The personal missals were replaced by the missalettes. And so, as one famous priest stated, “missalettes for christianettes”. [might have been Fr. George Rutler]

There were large numbers of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

But … nowadays, the laity is not actually taught anything about Catholicism. Folks don’t know nuthin’.

Big old dumbing down …

Father Benedict Groeschel has publicly stated that the scandal of the Church having STOPPED teaching even the basics of Catholicsm to the laity is a bigger scandal than the sexual abuse scandals of a handful of priests.

 

[debraran]

I know in my old parish, as the older parishioners died, there weren’t as many younger families taking their place. But at my new Dominican parish, maybe because it’s “different” in some ways, there are always people at all masses, maybe not packed, but there. You can tell also by the amount of money made weekly compared to the other parishes. I think it’s in part because of the good preaching, the reverence of the mass and the offering of a 5pm mass on Sunday that does very well in attendance. If some coach says you have to make something “or else” or you have to work, which I do sometimes, it’s a great alternative. I don’t know if it would make a difference at some parishes, but it does at this one, especially with younger members, college age, etc.

 

[Cat]

I’m surprised that “kids’ sports” hasn’t come up.

OTOH, from what I’ve seen, it’s easy enough to find a Mass to attend no matter what kind of sport your family is involved wth. I really don’t think sports can be cited as a reason for declining Mass attendance.

We get dozens of families in our Saturday vigil Masses who are in our city for kids’ soccer tourneys. Often they come dressed in soccer gear, but they’re there, and that’s the important thing! Wise parents!

My daughters (and husband) were figure skaters growing up, and we missed a LOT of church due to practices and competitions. Back then, there were no evangelical Protestant churches that held Sat. P.M. services.

A lot of figure skating events (competitions or test sessions) occur on Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7:00 A.M. with practices as early as 5 A.M. (earlier for synchronized skating competitions). So Saturday night would have been perfect for us, but Protestants didn’t do that back then.

Now, many Protestant churches in our city offer Sat. P.M. services–they’re smart! (Our initial reason for attending a Catholic Church was that we wanted to obey the command in the Bible to assemble with other believers, and Catholic churches offered Sat. P.M. services!)

 

[Greg27]

There are probably several factors. The biggest is no doubt the secularisation of society combined with the greater emphasis on personal autonomy and freedom; these are both outgrowths of the Enlightenment but have accelerated in the past 30-40 years to a great extent. Because of these people feel less obligated to follow routines as well as authority and organised religion; religion has become much more ‘privatised’ as society has become more secular, and people tend to be very interested in things like meditation but less so in formal sacramental life.

Another factor is the explosion in entertainment media and recreation in its diverse forms. People now have many diversions such as television, radio, the computer and various online media, with countless choices on which content to use. This means people can easily on a Sunday just watch sports or go on the internet and chat rather than go to church.

Another factor is people are more inclined to treat religion as something done freely rather than out of obligation. This means there is more emphasis on a person choosing to go or not to go based on various complex reasons, rather than fear of committing a grave sin.

A further factor is many Catholics have lapsed due to various reasons, ranging from disagreements with the Church’s stand on controversial issues such as teaching on abortion, contraception, divorce etc to disagreements with the reforms of Vatican II. I’ve noticed in my encounters church going Catholics either seem to think reform has gone too far or too little, with few in the middle. No doubt mixed in with the pluralism and relativism in society in terms of religions, philosophies and ideaologies which claim to truth, the result is a very confusing landscape in terms of what to believe, what to think, and what to practice, and the burden on the individual, who tends to be very atomised in competitive Western society by pressure to succeed in this life only, can be confusing, and the possibilities offered by seemingly limitless freedom dizzying.

In my own case what has tempted me to laspe from the Church and Mass are aggressive forms of authoritarianism and legalism on the part of laypeople or the church’s leaders, rigid inflexbility of dogma and law over compassion and justice, demands to accept dogmas by effectively euthanaising one’s reason, hatred and intolerance towards other non-Catholic Christians or those of other religions, and bad apologetics. If I no longer attended Mass, it would be for these reasons, and not because I just couldn’t be bothered anymore.

 

[VociMike]

In case the critical point was lost in my data post: from the early 60s to the 90s, in the U.S., Catholic attendance dropped by 40%, while Protestant attendance remained about the same.

Any explanation must account for this stark difference. Same culture. Same distractions. Same secular everything.

 

[Joysong]

VociMike,

I don’t see a source for your information, but I disagree with the statistics, based on this graph:

pcusa.org/research/reports/trends.htm

It shows that the Presbyterian Church in the USA has declined radically during the same period that you use for your data base. (4,100,000 to 2,300,000) Yet you say protestant participation has stayed the same? It appears to me that other faiths are experiencing the same problems as Catholics.

I certainly don’t put much stock in polls unless all the criteria are offered regarding how the data was obtained.

 

[stbruno]

Here’s my take on the decline.

In first world nations, it is evident that church attendance is down because…the perception is that we don’t need God. We are doing very well on our own. God is not necessary unless we are struggling financially or health wise…or the churches in the US were packed for a couple weeks after 9-11 because people realized that even with all the technology in the world, we were at the mercy of terrorists…so we needed God’s merciful protection.

In third world nations, vocations are on the rise, people go to church as the center of their life…both spiritually & socially. The church provides so much of their well-being. They recognize clearly the need to be connected to a community of faith for their preservation, salvation & spiritual wellness. There is no divide between rich or poor, servant or free.

My prayer is that people will return to the first commandment…placing God first above all else. It’s that important…that God made it first in our lives…we should do the same.

 

[VociMike]

VociMike,

I don’t see a source for your information, but I disagree with the statistics, based on this graph:

pcusa.org/research/reports/trends.htm

It shows that the Presbyterian Church in the USA has declined radically during the same period that you use for your data base. (4,100,000 to 2,300,000) Yet you say protestant participation has stayed the same? It appears to me that other faiths are experiencing the same problems as Catholics.

I certainly don’t put much stock in polls unless all the criteria are offered regarding how the data was obtained.

As I said, it’s from the book “Index of Leading Catholic Indicators”. The data for both Catholic and Protestant attendance is from Gallup. Thus whatever error there might be should be evened out between Catholic and Protestant responses, since the same organization gathered the data in the same manner at the same time from both groups.

The mistake you’re making is in looking at only one denomination, an “old-line” one as well. Old-line attendance and membership has definitely dropped, nobody questions that. But Baptist and other Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Pentecostalist and non-denominational membership has risen. The Protestant data covers all of those groups.

 

[lak611]

There is a lot more going on Sundays now which distracts people. Used to be that stores weren’t even open.

I think that a major factor is economic advancement. For an immigrant population, the parish is often the center of their lives. It provides a point of contact and support in an environment with people who you can relate to and understand your background. As such, there is a greater sense of commitment to all things Church.

As incomes rise and people get “established” (perhaps moving to a “better” neighborhood), there is a greater sense of independence, a lesser sense of connectedness, an impression that parish life (and reliance upon God) isn’t as much needed. There are more opportunities and greater demands for your time, money, and commitments. Church becomes secondary, at best.

What can save this a bit is if one has developed strong ties and returns to the old neighborhood to maintain them. Or if there is some sense of family which develops and supports you at a new church.

In many older cities that are in decline, such as Cleveland, where I live, urban sprawl has caused most people to largely abandon the city. We have many inner-city parishes that were formerly associated with a particular ethnic group. The parishioners have long ago left the city and the parishes. Starting in the post-WW2 years, they moved to suburbs immediately surrounding Cleveland. In the 1970’s through today, they have moved farther away from the city. Plus the population of Cleveland in general has declined from over 1 million to around 400,000 residents due to plant closings and job losses. In the first round of parish clustering and consolidation, probably about 70 parishes will need to be closed. The only reason some of the inner-city parishes are still open is because a few people still make the drive to go to Mass on Sunday. These tend to be older people who still have a connection to the parish. Most of their descendants no longer have any connection to those ethnic roots. Also, many of the inner-city parishes have already closed their schools. The schools that remain open, for the most part, serve non-Catholics who are using the voucher program since the public schools are so bad.

 

[Joysong]

VociMike,

Well, since you mentioned the Baptists, I googled their denomination, and it appears their problems are far worse than ours. baptistpress.com/bpnews.asp?ID=21189

I’m not sure I would find a substantial difference, no matter what denomination I google. The fact of nonattendance has been reported on many evangelical TV programs. I would question the gallup poll, for it certainly is at odds with what I’m seeing.

Point being? Why are you anxious to show that Catholics are having problems? Wouldn’t be because of subtle inference concerning the N.O. liturgy, would it? Maybe not. But I’ve seen it proposed by a number of traditionists, of whose membership you are also affiliated.

 

[blacktiger057]

probably because we are so modern and much more advanced now. The problem is that the Church has not shifted their views on many things and traditions that need to be thrown out. While Christians are very popular religion wise, the number of true Christians are less than half of all Christians. Very sad…

 

[cheese_sdc]

One of the biggest factors has been an the pedophile scandal and refusal to have more transparency afterwards. It appears there is even less transparency than before. This cuts across all issues of all sides and no real efforts have been made to try to regain that credibility. Many also see a scapegoat effort (which can be nasty) to try to deflect any real discussion from this.

Also, many are turned off by the increase in authoritarianism. Emphasizing rules does not help most people grow spiritually. People will walk away from an overly stern letter of the law, even more if they do not really see any meaning behind it.

The overtly-political stances are also turning people off. It has become very shrill lately with most of the people left off to the side not willing to make their voices heard. Any sign that the Church is just the arm of a political party also turns people off.

Attendance is also based on community outreach. In my town, the only church that is still thriving and is the youngest and best talked about has a active Social Justice part to it. The youth are really drawn to it because they can see all the talk and ceremony actually mean something. The other two who do not focus on this are really greying fast and in slow decline.

Excellent post. It is easy to blame “the culture” or “relativism” or “the New Age”. It is less easy to look inside and see what is wrong with ourselves.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

VociMike,

What I find interesting about your statistics is that over time, Catholics and Protestants have reached about the same level of participation at Mass/religious services. Perhaps what has happened is that Catholics have become assimilated into the American culture. And American culture is not exactly friendly toward religion.

Statistics I’ve seen about topics like contraception say that Catholics and Protestants use it at about the same levels, If so, it would be another sign of assimilation.

If you think back to the 1960s, John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism was a major issue. If you think back to 2004, John Kerry’s Catholicism was perhaps more of a problem for Catholics (who didn’t approve of his position on abortion) than for the population at large.

Someone above posted the section of the Catechism saying that missing Mass on Sunday was a grave sin. And that’s fine…if it matters to you. I think there are many Catholics who go to Mass sometimes, miss it sometimes, and are comfortable enough with that situation to receive communion when they attend. Clearly what the Catechism says doesn’t matter all that much to them.

Someone else commented above that going to Mass should change us so that we draw other people to attend too. How often do we indicate to others that Mass is very important to us? Have you ever told someone you couldn’t attend an event of some sort because it would conflict with going to Mass? Have you ever talked with someone about how going to Mass leaves you feeling inspired to face the coming week?

Two things come to mind. One is that I’ve asked in hotels where the closest Catholic church is. And I’ve gotten replies about how it’s always the Catholics who want to know that. At least for those people for whom Mass is important, it’s VERY important.

The second thing that comes to mind is that some of the attitude I see reflected in this forum overall is not something that would draw lukewarm Catholics or non-Catholics to want to come to Mass. From most of what I read the music is insipid, the homilies are worthless, and there’s a lot more focus on how many extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are used (and whether they have the audacity to call themselves Eucharistic Ministers) than on the fact that Jesus has become present on the altar and we can receive Him in the form of bread and wine. Isn’t that the most awe-inspiring thing you can imagine? Would you voluntarily miss that opportunity for any kind of sports event or wandering the mall or sleeping in on a Sunday morning?

 

[Joysong]

Two things come to mind. One is that I’ve asked in hotels where the closest Catholic church is. And I’ve gotten replies about how it’s always the Catholics who want to know that. At least for those people for whom Mass is important, it’s VERY important.

A wonderful witness and devotedness.

The second thing that comes to mind is that some of the attitude I see reflected in this forum overall is not something that would draw lukewarm Catholics or non-Catholics to want to come to Mass. From most of what I read the music is insipid, the homilies are worthless, and there’s a lot more focus on how many extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion are used (and whether they have the audacity to call themselves Eucharistic Ministers) than on the fact that Jesus has become present on the altar and we can receive Him in the form of bread and wine.

I’m coming to the conclusion that a lot of the discussion is just chat-room hot debate that causes some to feel devastated when their viewpoint is opposed. The game being played is “win at all costs, even if you are proved wrong.” The only threads that warrant the hot spot are these most controversial accidents, rather than the essentials.

Isn’t that the most awe-inspiring thing you can imagine? Would you voluntarily miss that opportunity for any kind of sports event or wandering the mall or sleeping in on a Sunday morning?

Why don’t we see threads that speak of this? And everybody chime in with Amen, glad to be there, wouldn’t miss it. How can I become more pleasing to God? Etc.

 

[chicago]

In case the critical point was lost in my data post: from the early 60s to the 90s, in the U.S., Catholic attendance dropped by 40%, while Protestant attendance remained about the same.

Any explanation must account for this stark difference. Same culture. Same distractions. Same secular everything.

How many of the Protestants who are attending services are people who used to attend Catholic services?

 

[Fitz]

My church is packed all the time. It is in one of the fastest growing suburban ares of Chicago. That being said, many people are still not going. If everyone came that was in our parish we would have to add on about 4 more masses. We have over 1400 children in CCD. The parish next to us has over 1600 in CCD. It is the same for other neighboring parishes. Yet, many of the people I see in church are the older people. I know many of the families suit themselves and go as they please. Yet lines for confession are almost non existent.

The reason… My personal belief is that Catholics have become increasingly Protestant. If they don’t like the priest they quit their parish, if they are busy they tell themselves that they are still good people and why be obsessive about church attendance. A huge faction in our parish left to go to an Evangelical church nearby because they had bettter children’s activites and a real live youth minister that really worked well with children. The mega Protestant parishes in our area are so huge I can’t even begin to tell you about them.

 

[chicago]

In many older cities that are in decline, such as Cleveland, where I live, urban sprawl has caused most people to largely abandon the city. We have many inner-city parishes that were formerly associated with a particular ethnic group. The parishioners have long ago left the city and the parishes. Starting in the post-WW2 years, they moved to suburbs immediately surrounding Cleveland. In the 1970’s through today, they have moved farther away from the city. Plus the population of Cleveland in general has declined from over 1 million to around 400,000 residents due to plant closings and job losses. In the first round of parish clustering and consolidation, probably about 70 parishes will need to be closed. The only reason some of the inner-city parishes are still open is because a few people still make the drive to go to Mass on Sunday. These tend to be older people who still have a connection to the parish. Most of their descendants no longer have any connection to those ethnic roots. Also, many of the inner-city parishes have already closed their schools. The schools that remain open, for the most part, serve non-Catholics who are using the voucher program since the public schools are so bad.

Yes, no doubt this is common in most old urban center. One of the further challenges is that the parish schools which once helped unite a community are not viable in most of the old neighborhoods any longer (especially at the high cost) while in the suburban parishes where parents might be able to afford such schooling, there are few parish schools. Instead, everyone takes advantage of quality public schooling which is, afterall, free.

However, what is happenning in some major cities is that as one immigrant population moves out another moves in. So, for instance, a historically Slavic parish might now be predominantly Mexican. It may even have Masses in three languages: one for the old parishioners who still return, one for the new ethnic immigrants, one for the other English language speakers. Or, due to regentrification, some of the parishes have received renewal through an influx of young people and their earning power.

 

[chicago]

The reason… My personal belief is that Catholics have become increasingly Protestant. If they don’t like the priest they quit their parish, if they are busy they tell themselves that they are still good people and why be obsessive about church attendance. A huge faction in our parish left to go to an Evangelical church nearby because they had bettter children’s activites and a real live youth minister that really worked well with children. The mega Protestant parishes in our area are so huge I can’t even begin to tell you about them.

There certainly is a lot of “church shopping” going on, isn’t there? Even within Catholicism, many people tend to go over parish lines to some place where they feel more confortable, find more convenient, offers better services.

Recently, a choir director at an Episcopalean parish expressed frustration to me in that most of her choir was Catholics who left the Catholic Church yet didn’t really want to bother to appreciate or understand the traditions of the Episcopal Church, either.