Posted on 03/24/2025 5:42:11 PM PDT by ebb tide
In October of every year, my diocese, the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, conducts a “head count” in order to determine average Mass attendance. The results of the 2024 count were published in the diocesan newspaper, The Arlington Catholic Herald, in the Jan. 30 – Feb. 12, 2025 edition. Out of an estimated 433,000 registered Catholics in the diocese, approximately 28.8% attended “weekend” Mass in October, 2024.
The article compared this result to national attendance rates, citing a Gallup survey in 2024 that showed 23% weekly Mass attendance and a Georgetown University survey that put the figure at 17% in 2023. The article acknowledged that a finding that more than 70% of Catholics in the Diocese of Arlington “are not actively engaged on a consistent basis” means that “we have to go out and welcome and invite and evangelize.”
Can we please stop tip-toeing around the problem? The 70% are not just “not actively engaged;” they are missing Mass. “Evangelization” is for non-Christians. What these Catholics need is “catechization.”
Let us begin with Numbers 2041 and 2042 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This is where The Precepts of the Catholic Church are set out. Number 2041 explains that these precepts are obligatory positive laws, containing the absolute minimum level of moral prayer and effort required of Catholics.
Number 2042 sets forth the first precept: “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor.” There are four more precepts, but we can stop here for our purposes. (I will note, without elaboration, that the requirement is to attend Mass on “Sundays,” not “weekends.”)
There is no “or else” in the precept. The bishop will not strike you from the registration rolls because you have failed to meet the minimum level of effort required in order to be a Catholic. You will not incur a latae sententiae excommunication. If you say you are a Catholic, the world will take you at your word, regardless of your actual Mass attendance.
It is not a question of whether you believe everything the Church teaches. It is not about what you think of homosexuality. It is not about what you think about adultery, fornication, contraception or abortion. It is not about whether you “get anything out of the service.” It is not about what you think of the pope.
It is solely about going to church on Sundays. It is about doing the absolute minimum that is necessary to be a Catholic. At the very least, the Church requires you to be present in the congregation to worship your God on His day and to spend the remainder of that day resting from the cares and obligations that burden you during the other days of the week.
What some bishops and pastors have lost sight of is the importance and necessity of the worship of God by the followers of His Son. The Mass, first and foremost, is an act of worship: the perpetual sacrificial offering by the faithful, through a priest, of God to God. Participation in this worship is the least you must do in order to be Catholic.
I contend that the very notion of worship, as the most fundamental aspect of our religion, has been lost — or deliberately submerged — in the background noise of social accommodation and moral relativism. Faith, morals and worship — the lex credendi, the lex vivendi, and the lex orandi — are the three fundamental pillars of Catholicism. Worship has been systematically undermined for more than sixty years. Yet this pillar — right worship — is at the heart of the first precept of the Church.
The relegation of worship to near-irrelevancy in the lives of the faithful goes hand-in-hand with the scandalous reports of widespread disbelief in the real presence of Jesus Christ on the altar during Mass. The Church has done this to itself by abandoning its claim to being the sole means of salvation.
Clearly, then, the way to restore attendance at Mass is to reestablish and reassert the unique nature of the Catholic Church. The consecration of bread and wine into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ during the holy sacrifice of the Mass uniquely occurs in a Catholic church. The unbloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the Father is the worship that underlies the first precept of the Church.
For the reasons outlined above, attendance at Sunday Mass by members of the Catholic Church is not optional. It is time for our bishops and pastors to say it.
...
For the reasons outlined above, attendance at Sunday Mass by members of the Catholic Church is not optional. It is time for our bishops and pastors to say it.
Ping
I have periods of burn out, to be honest, and don’t go for a period of time sometimes.
1 they feminized it. The music, to begin with. The phony handshake for peace. While the consecrated Eucharist is on the altar no less
Just for starters
2 They’re not clear in the teachings of the Catholic Church on birth control and also cohabitation in parishes. Both are mortal sins. Period. Abortion is birth control. Focus on birth control. The hierarchy denies it goes on and in other ways they condone both. People know they’re living in sin. They don’t approach mass
Confession is ignored. If it were made available people would be more likely to go. It needs to be taught It is vital
When Catholics realize what mortal sin is then they get real about attending mass
When they are reminded that it is a mortal sin to miss mass on sundays and holy days of obligation then they go to mass on sundays and holy days
When they hang around practicing. Catholics they get properly catechised
When they realize going to Heaven is not a group deal. They each have to face the creator individually then they turn it around and go to mass when they’re supposed to.
Offering a Latin Mass would help considerably ...
At a parish we frequently attend, one of the priests omits the sign of peace among the congregants (it is an option all priests have). Newcomers to the parish often gaze around in dismay. A few still attempt, either because they think the priest just forgot to say it, or out of habit, ignorance, or defiance. This same priest is also known for being a stickler on the rubrics and for maintaining decorum during Mass (including no applause for any reason and requiring that cell phones be muted), and for his kick-ass, take no prisoners homilies.
One of the two great laws is, love your neighbor as yourself. Can you not smile and wish peace to your neighbor and mean it for all the three seconds it takes? And if you seek to be reconciled with God you can certainly make an appointment with your priest. Or go during regular hours of confession. You have criticisms of the Mass but it sounds to me like you don’t try very hard.
That sound very good. I nave have and never will applaud at mass. I leave my cell phone in the car. My family leave theirs home.
Oh I try. I attend mass on sundays and holy days. I know where all the confession times are. Why wouldn’t I.
SWmiling and wishing peace to your neighbor is not the issue. It is the placement of that particular practice. It would make perfect sense at the beginning of Mass right after the priest has greeted the congregation.
Placing this gesture in the midlle of the Eucharistic prayers is awkward and disruptive, leaving many people still socializing when the “Sanctus” commences. It’s as if it was deliberately put there to take the focus away from Jesus.
*Smiling
I used to think exactly as you do, Bigg Red, then I read exactly what scooter said and eventually considered what Christ said (Matthew 5:23): If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.
It is disruptive and dimishes the focus on the Eucharistic ritual.
Such a ritual embrace is done, I am sure with reverence and focus on the Eucharist. Pretty sure there are no high-fives or noisy greetings.
Yes, you are correct. Thus, a quick nod, or a simple handshake with those immediately adjacent to me is fine. At one church I sometimes go to for daily Mass when I have no other choice, everyone feels they need to make eye contact and wave or make the peace sign to everyone else. I just stick to my practice of nodding to those immediately adjacent to me.
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