Mass Attendance Going Up?

By VERY REV. WILLIAM THOMPSON

Every October, parishes across the United States take part in the annual Mass attendance count. The bishops of the country decided several decades ago to set one month aside each year to learn the average Mass attendance in order to understand local trends. You will know it is October when you see the ushers moving around the church quickly, pointing pencils at people’s heads!

The good news is that each year since COVID has seen an increase in Mass attendance. This year (October 2024) increased over last year by only one percent. While we have experienced small increases recently, the same cannot be said of our long-term data: from 2009 to 2024, overall Mass attendance dropped 36.1%.

Over the past 15 years, our diocese, similar to other dioceses in the Midwest, has seen a decline in Mass attendance in both number and percentage of Catholics. More specifically, in 2009, 29.1% of the roughly 131,000 Catholics were attending Mass at a parish on any given Sunday. In 2024, 21.4% of the 114,000 Catholics attended Mass on Sundays. While the percentage drop in attendance may not seem like much, it equates to a decrease of more than 13,000 Catholics attending Mass every Sunday. There is a similar story with parishes and priests. Since 2009, the number of parishes has dropped from 116 to 90, a decrease of about 22.4%. In 2009, the Diocese of Winona had 79 active priests serving in parishes and our other institutions, and that number dropped to 69 in 2024. However, while in 2024 we saw the number of priests fall, the number of seminarians in formation for the priesthood has risen from 7 to 27.

Often, when faced with the reality of such trends, we ask, “What can we do?” When I have spoken to Serra Clubs - a group that fosters and prays for vocations to consecrated life and holy orders - I ask them to do three things: “Pray. Pray. And pray.” We have seen the number of our seminarians rise in large part due to those prayers. Pray, also, for a return of the faithful to the celebration of the sacraments and practice of the faith. Prayer works.

So, to recap, between 2009-2024, the number of people attending Mass decreased by 36.1%, the number of parishes decreased by 22.4%, and the number of priests decreased by 12.7%. However, whereas in 2009 we had 7 seminarians in our diocese, we had 27 seminarians at the beginning of 2024 - an increase of 385%! Keep praying; prayer works.

Of course, we are also practical; we want projects and goals. To that end, Bishop Barron has called for a Diocesan Synod on Vocations and Evangelization. This Synod will consist of two preparatory phases prior to the synod: 1) look for a survey to be distributed in Lent to learn of your experience of the Mass, evangelization and vocations, 2) during the Easter season, regional conversations will be convened for deeper conversation on the themes of evangelization and vocations, and 3) later this summer, delegates and appointed individuals from all around the diocese will gather to discuss concrete ways to promote vocations and build up evangelization in our diocese.

Seeing fewer people in the pews and the graying of the priests can be difficult, even sad. However, it also provides an impetus to do what we should have been doing all along: spreading the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, has saved you from your sins, and has called you into a relationship with him in the Church. We don’t do a great job of evangelizing. Let’s change that.

Father William Thompson is the Vicar General of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.