Under the Acacia Tree

Recently the Vice President of the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association shared statistics with all of our Paulist Brothers which indicate clearly that people who attend Mass on a regular basis are getting to be fewer and fewer.   Here’s what the statistics say:

Catholic Mass attendance has been in decline from a peak in 1957 and 1958. In 2003, Gallup surveys indicated that, on average, 40 percent of Catholics said they attended Mass within seven days of being surveyed (compared to 74 percent in 1958). The most recent surveys indicated regular attendance at Mass at 34% of Catholics.

That last number is a crusher.   Most of us would be inclined to say that regular attendance at Mass is a reasonable criteria for determining whether someone is a practicing Catholic, without ever defining “regular attendance.”   However, researchers do attach definitions to what “regular attendance” means.  In this case it means that within seven days of being interviewed the person had attended Mass.  The criteria for a practicing Catholic may be more demanding from Jesus’ point of view, but the statistics are still mind boggling.

What these statistics tell us is that if we have noticed decreasing numbers over the years here at St. Augustine that we as a community are not immune to what is going on throughout the US.     If we intend to be a vibrant  Catholic community then we must be intentional about our participation in the church, and if we intend to grow our Church we are, of necessity, going to need to be involved in evangelization.  We will only be a growing Catholic Christian community when we reach out to others to share the Good News.  At the Downtown Kiwanis Club we good naturedly kid one of our members because he goes out of his way and at personal expense to bring guests to the weekly meetings.  But we also know, that many of those guests become members and that’s what keeps our Kiwanis Club healthy.  I believe that the same is important for St. Augustine.   If we intend to grow as a Church, we will need to invite friends and family, who are looking for a Church, to join us.   How many times do I hear, “Father G, I just wish my children were coming to Church.”  Those children now have children of their own.  They grew up at St. Augustine.   But when they were free to make choices about their faith, they chose another path.  It’s time to invite those children, and their friends to come join us.  Visitors often become members and it’s our task to keep on seeking for them in our own spheres of influence.

Rev. John Geaney, CSP

Pastor

November 15, 2009