Posted on 03/18/2021 11:05:03 AM PDT by ebb tide
WASHINGTON — The churchgoing experience may be different once the threat of COVID-19 is minimized and church experts are forecasting fewer Catholics overall in the pews.
Fewer people attending church will require a radical restructuring of parish life in many parts of the U.S. in the post-pandemic era, said Matthew F. Manion, faculty director of the Center for Church Management at Villanova University near Philadelphia.
"From what I'm seeing, the pandemic speeds along processes that were already happening," said Timothy P. O'Malley, a theology professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. "The crisis that we're going to experience in parishes is the rise of the nones (people who don't identify with any religious affiliation). There is a sense of sort of a lost generation."
he people who were going through the motions of attending church basically out of obligation — but not out of a real love for the religion — dropped off during lockdowns when the churches were closed to Mass and many of them didn't return once the churches reopened, O'Malley said.
"I think the pandemic has clearly been an accelerant of changes and trends that were happening in the church already," Manion said.
By studying data from several dioceses and archdioceses throughout the U.S., the Center for Church Management had projected — before the onset of the pandemic — that church attendance in 2030 would be half of what it had been in 2010, Manion said.
"I think what the pandemic has done has brought that window way forward," he said. "It's not going to be 2030. It could be 2022, 2023."
Manion expects to see a sweeping parish shake-up in the U.S. post-pandemic to deal with fewer people in the pews.
"We are built for a church that no longer exists," he said, "and we have an infrastructure for a church that no longer exists. An infrastructure that can no longer be supported in many cases."
Hard decisions will have to be made, including parish merging and closures, Manion said.
A smaller and more humble church isn't necessarily a bad outcome for this moment in Catholic Church history, said Massimo Faggioli, professor of historical theology at Villanova University.
It gives the people in church communities the opportunity to enrich their faith in the Gospel, find new ways to worship and ultimately employ better methods of evangelization to help their parishes flourish, Faggioli said.
"We're going to need a new approach to formation," O'Malley said. "We're going to need lay folk who are doing outreach, who are trained theologically and spiritually to do this kind of outreach within the parish, talk to their neighbors, be involved in conversations.
"We just can't presume a sort of model where (the priest) stays in the parish, teaches and does catechesis," O'Malley said. "It's going to require a renewal of lay Catholic life."
During the pandemic priests, women religious, members of parish councils and other members of the laity pulled together to try and reach Catholics through the use of technology while communities were in lockdown, said Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge.
More Masses were livestreamed, parish council members collaborated via Zoom video conference and the creative spirit began with the production of catechetical videos for people stuck at home with more time on their hands, which helped engage people in the faith, Bishop Burbidge said.
"What we began to see is, 'Guess what we're doing? We're evangelizing,' " he said.
There was a missionary approach to religion in the early days of the pandemic that took priests and religious out of the rectories and into the communities to offer COVID-19-safe confessions, outdoor Mass, eucharistic adoration and community lay-led prayer groups.
When Marie Miller attended Mass in the parking lot of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Allentown, Pa., last October, she marveled at the creativity of her parish in providing a pandemic-safe liturgy and she really liked worshipping outside in the fresh air.
"I hope they keep something like this after this whole coronavirus pandemic is behind us," she said. "I hope they at least continue to give us an opportunity to attend Mass outside. I feel closer to God out here."
It currently requires a dispensation from a local bishop to authorize a Mass outside, something that was done generously during the pandemic to provide safe worship spaces.
Faggioli believes church leaders will be looking at more use of outdoor worship in the post-pandemic era, because people like Miller discovered a greater sense of her Creator while attending Mass outside.
"What we saw from this church during the pandemic was a church that attempted every method they could think of to keep people faithful to the Gospel," he said. "Some of it worked and some of it didn't. I'm hoping you're going to see that same kind of creativity and transformation in how we do church in the future. If the pandemic is any gauge, it shows the will is there."
It's likely that more lay-led catechesis, devotions, prayer life and evangelization will emerge with less reliance on the clergy, O'Malley said.
"We should be doing more outside and in our neighborhoods and the laity can help lead devotional life," he said. "I'd love to see more outdoor processions and outdoor visible participation in religious life."
There can be more participation in the digital space as well, such as group catechesis and even a monthly Zoom meeting with a bishop, which may be a more practical way of faith involvement, O'Malley said.
The pandemic brought an openness to try new things, which can bring necessary reforms to the post-pandemic church, Manion said.
"I hope that we don't immediately go back to 'OK, good, we survived, let's go back to the way everything was,’ " he said with a laugh. "I hope we take the things that were good from before and the things that were good that were learned through this (pandemic) to continue to spark new ways of doing things."
Barf Alert Ping
Maronite church in our area & the SSPX parish refused to shut down when the scamdemic hit in our part of Florida. The local bishop has instituted the most bizarre “mandate” for coming to Mass. Pure madness.
Maybe some of those televangelists might have to give up one or two of their private jets because of lost income.
It is said that it takes 30 days to change a habit. I wonder how many lifelong Catholics went to Mass every Sunday but have not gone to Mass for a year will return to their previous attendance patterns. Certainly not all.
I posted this last November. Since then I have been admonished at two Catholic Churches for not wearing a mask, one admonishment was from the deacon just before the Gospel reading as he looked straight at me. And no longer are we able to receive the Eucharist on our tongues unless you want to wait after Mass. Needless to say, the last Mass I attended was at a Latin Mass parish.
The Church of Frankie:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3904687/posts
My Methodist church announced that it will be reopening for in-person services, but you have to make an appointment to attend, you have to have your temperature taken when you enter, and you have to wear a mask during the service.
And here I just thought people wouldn’t be admitted unless they were in Drag...
Which bishop was that?
Our Baptist Church is back in business after a pastor retired the end of January. We are seeking God’s leadership and expecting mighty things through the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus.
Church likely to undergo a transformation in the post-pandemic era as it becomes more muslim welcoming following Pope Frankie’s lead.
I remember how the Right Wing fanatics were accused of exaggerating the extent that Obama was undermining freedom of religion in this country. Now, the Government is using COVID to literally close down churches across the country, gradually.
Soon, this incrementalism,will become a pervasive and unrestricted war on specific churches and sects, because of alleged ties to “Alt-Right” groups and “domestic terrorists”. The churches that accede to the authoritarian pressure will be asked to betray people who still resist such things as gun control and confiscation, and any links to Trump and his supporters.
Religious repression will not stop, even if the country somehow can “go back to normal”. There will be an endless stream of excuses for suppression of any kind of religious organization and activity, if it is deemed a threat to the ruling oligarchy.
This will be built into the educational and legal systems in this country, and as we see with Mike Lindell, the “Cancel Culture” will be unleashed upon any of those perceived threats with a rabid intensity never seen before.
Oh, we’ve got some fun times ahead. Fight this tyranny, or lose your right to religious freedom, forever. Because if you don’t, you will prove to those in power that we don’t really care, and they will double down on the unconstitutional government regulation and repression once more. I don’t think that God is on their side.
My church has been open since August. You have to wear a mask and the seating is cut in half but we are pretty full every week. This is in New Hampshire where we haven’t gone full Commie yet.
St Augustine. Esteves is his name IIRC.
FTA
It’s likely that more lay-led catechesis, devotions, prayer life and evangelization will emerge with less reliance on the clergy, O’Malley said.
::::
Sure, there are some just rubbing their hands in anticipation of such a devolution.
Prayers up for Holy Mother Church.
Probably. :(
Well said.
“attending church basically out of obligation — but not out of a real love for the religion” probably applies to most Catholic Bishops.
Very disappointed in Estévez. I wrote him an outraged letter after he shut things down. A couple of the parishes .... Immaculate Conception in Jax, St Patrick’s north of here, and probably some others...quietly kept on doing in-person things. The Bishop was politely ignoring it until some Karens wrote to him complaining about Communion on the tongue, unmasked servers, etc at these churches. So he got stricter with them, to keep the Karens happy and quiet, but still allowed them to continue.
On the other hand, some parishes just locked up and went to online all the time, and then later to reservations andlimited attendance.
The Latin mass communities or the Latin mass attendees and priests at those parishes that have them did best of all and made a real effort to stay sane. Tells you something, no?
Many churches (both Protestant and Catholic) have made going to church so cumbersome and depressing that people just don’t want to go.
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