In a 100-page letter to clergy and the faithful, Pope John Paul II addressed declining church attendance among the world’s 1 billion Catholics. The pope said the “holiness of the Lord’s day” must be protected at all costs. He reaffirmed that it is a “grave sin” if Catholics skip Sunday Mass deliberately and without a legitimate reason.

Citing the Bible’s creation story, canon law and philosophers in his contemplative letter, “Dies Domini,” he wrote the document because of declining church attendance, which he blamed in part on a “declining spirit of faith.”

With fewer parishes and fewer priests than in 1990, and fewer of the nation’s 64 million Catholics in pews, the church seems to be undergoing a significant test.

Some place the culpability on the 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal and its financial price tag, but a 2005 report from Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) exhibited no statistical link between the decline in Mass attendance over 2000 Mass attendance counts. Both statistics demonstrate nearly identical 33 percent weekly Mass attendance counts among United States adult Catholics.

Attendance locally has declined since 1999

While national statistics remain unchanged, Mass counts have declined since 1999 in the Milwaukee Archdiocese. Despite an overall high of 232,804 average Sunday Mass attendance in 1999 and 191,498 as of October 2006, the declining attendance may have little to do with the clergy sex scandal and more on external factors such as profiled in a 2004 study by USA Today:

Many Catholics are moving from cities in the Northeast and Midwest to the suburbs, South and Southwest.

For decades, so few men have become priests that in many cases, such as within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a priest is not assigned to every parish, however, there is a priest available sacramentally.

Mass attendance has fallen as each generation has become less religiously observant.

Bishops – trained to bless, not to budget – lack the managerial skills to govern multimillion-dollar institutions.

These trends began years before the scandal heaped on financial pressures to cover settlements, legal costs, care and counseling for victims and abusers.

Average Mass Counts in 2005 were 195,455 and 191,498 in 2006. Some districts in the Milwaukee Archdiocese have exhibited an increase in weekly attendance. In Districts 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 14, moderate to significant increases in weekly Mass attendance were realized during October 2006 Mass counts.

Slight increase at St. Matthias

Although not located in a district that listed increased Mass attendance in their totals, St. Matthias, in District 16, on the southwest side of Milwaukee, realized an increase of 132 people over 2005 figures, according to Fr. Dave E. Cooper, pastor.

“In October 2005, we had 2,498 and on Oct. 14-15 of 2006 we had a count of 2,630 plus the people who were at the Mass with the deaf community and Fr. Zerkel in the chapel at 9 a.m.,” he said. “This means we are moving in the right direction. I am very excited and happy about the increase and I hope and pray this will continue and improve even more.”

Fr. Cooper reminded parishioners in a Nov. 2, 2006 bulletin that according to the Second Vatican Council, parents are the primary and best teachers of children in the ways of faith and “there is nothing that can compensate for their failure in this important duty.”

“It is so important for parents to bring children on a regular basis so that they too learn the importance of community worship and develop the habit,” he said. “It is shocking to know that so many of our children do not know the basic prayers and rituals of our Catholic faith.”

Cathedral is ‘intentional community’

Located in district 13, in an area that showed a significant decrease in attendance between 2005 and 2006, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist has grown over one and a half percent. According to its pastor and rector, Fr. Carl Last, the Cathedral currently has 852 registered households or 1,516 members. Many of them are driving significant distances to attend Sunday Mass.

“Where we live is also interesting,” Fr. Last said in a July bulletin. “Fifteen percent of parishioners live in the 53202 (downtown/lower east side) zip code. Eighty-five percent of us live outside our zip code. We are not a typical geographic community. Rather, we are an intentional community that chooses to come here.”

As director of liturgy and communications at the cathedral, Scot Eakins agreed that many Catholics are going out of their way, sometimes driving long distances, to attend Mass and enjoy the affiliation with St. John.

“We get a lot of visitors and a lot of those people that see some of the things we are doing want to be a part of that,” he said. “We do draw from a large zip code area and some of the reasons people give us for coming is that they enjoy our liturgy, and (Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan) is often inviting groups of people to come to Mass here. Sometimes we have groups visiting because of a specific event associated with the archdiocese, such as our Red Mass. But whatever the reasons are, we are noticing a greater number of visitors to the Cathedral; it is truly becoming a destination place.”

Eakins also noted that while the parish does not have its own traditional Catholic school, it co-sponsors, along with the parishes of Old St. Mary, Our Lady of Divine Providence, SS. Peter and Paul, and Three Holy Women, Catholic East Elementary School. A significant number of those families attend Mass at St. John the Evangelist on a regular basis.

“We also notice that many parents who choose to enroll their children in our Choristers of St. Francis Xavier program decide to become very involved and are committed to the parish,” he said, adding, “We draw people from as far away as Delafield and Fond du Lac for this program.”

In addition to families with children involved in music ministry, the Cathedral is drawing younger members, under age 18, which indicated to Fr. Last that young, married couples are remaining as active members of the parish after having children.

“Thirty percent of our parishioners are between 19 and 35 years of age, 28 percent are between 36 and 55 years old, 19 percent are between 56 and 75 years old and 6 percent are over 75,” he said, adding, “We are clearly a much younger parish than when I arrived here a little under seven years ago and we are continuing to become a younger parish with a clear 75 percent now under the age of 55.”

When Eakins began his ministry at the cathedral, he was informed that while the school year tends to be busy, summer attendance drops off dramatically.

“Well, I don’t know what it is,” he said, joking, “But I have been here since February of 2003 and I have not seen a quiet summer yet! Of course, part of the draw may be that people are interested in seeing the Cathedral since the renovation, but another reason could be because it is the cathedral.”

Lake Geneva parish also sees growth

An overall increase in District 3 attendance is reflected in the attendance at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Lake Geneva. In 2005, the official count was 2,791 and in 2006, was 2,896.

While difficult to pinpoint a reason for the increase, Fr. Terry Huebner, pastor of St. Francis de Sales, attributes the growth to several areas.

“We do have the parish school and both visitors and members have responded favorably to our liturgical aspects,” he said. “With the amount of building going on around here, it seems to be an area that is attracting new families to our parish. We also have quite a few marriages and baptisms and sometimes people who have been away from church for a while will use a sacrament as a catalyst to jumpstart their activity within the church.”

Located in a popular vacation destination, the parish works diligently to extend hospitality to the traveler, with many visitors making repeat trips to Lake Geneva, specifically seeking out St. Francis de Sales Parish.

“We just had a group of ladies who have been coming for five years now and have a reunion,” stated Fr. Huebner. “They said they come back here because they feel so welcome. We are seeing quite a bit of that; a lot of our population is affected by visitors.”

Extending hospitality to the growing Latino population within the Lake Geneva area has encouraged significant growth in the Spanish Mass attendance numbers.

“The Hispanic Mass continues to grow,” said Judie Weeks, parish secretary. “There are times on Sunday evening that it is standing room only. The 2005 count for the Spanish Mass was 160-180; now we are over 300.”

An important facet to the growth in the number of Latino congregation members is the parish’s efforts to welcome them into the faith community, according to Fr. Huebner.

“We want the Spanish speakers to know that this is their home and not just a building that they can use when the Anglos are done with it. My sense is that because they are starting to feel more and more at home here, a good portion of the growth is coming now for sacraments and religious instruction for children and adults,” he said.

Challenge: Increase by 20 percent

As a challenge to each of the 16 districts in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Archbishop Dolan and the implementation commission have requested each parish to address the declining attendance statistics and to work on increasing Mass attendance by 20 percent according to Noreen Welte, director of the archdiocesan planning office.

“Across the board, 37 percent of members show up on a regular basis to weekly Mass,” she said. “This brings up huge implications for the future as the cost of running a parish continues to increase like any other business or lifestyle increases. If we have fewer people showing up, we have fewer people paying the bills. And if that trend doesn’t turn around, I don’t even want to project what the future looks like, but this is something we all need to look at.”

By bringing the long-term ramifications to the forefront regarding fewer Catholics in the pews, Welte hopes that the Mass attendance concern will become a “bread and butter issue,” with discussions taking place around evening dinner tables.

“We’d love it if Mass attendance becomes a bread and butter issue, because we want to know why people around the diocese do go to Mass and why they don’t go,” she said. “The faithful show up each week – we know which Mass they go to and which pew they sit in; we are real homing pigeons. And that’s the way Catholics are; we know who the strangers are because they are sitting in one place.”

While the focus may be to increase Mass attendance, the real issue for the regulars in the pews is for a personal examination of commitment to the church.

“As Catholics we need to really look at what our commitment is, and not just as our time, talent and treasures, or doing something extra at this point,” Welte admitted. “But we are looking for time to celebrate the Eucharist which is the most important thing we do. Participation in each community enables us to go out and live that during the week.”

While it may be easy to place the blame for a lack of Mass attendance on externals such as clergy abuse, lack of priests, or leadership issues, Welte admitted the focus might rest with more of a personal reflection on the calling to Catholicism, and an examination of personal and community shortcomings.

“If fewer people are coming, we are falling down on our Eucharistic commitment,” Welte said. “Each of us who calls ourselves Catholic must first be critical of ourselves and ask what kind of a member am I and if I am not a good member, can I commit to being one? If I am a so-so member, what can I do to improve? Our whole community is impacted whenever someone doesn’t show up.”

While it can be difficult to quantify the number of lapsed Catholics in the United States, those who view their faith as a commitment rather than a cultural flourish will attend church regularly. It is imperative to go beyond the trend, where John Allen, Vatican columnist for the weekly National Catholic Reporter, states “parishes are often sacramental filling stations – people coming for First Eucharist, baptisms, marriages and funerals, but little else”

Welte agreed, and added that if the decline in Mass attendance continues, there will be fewer parishes available.

“Our Catholic identity stays with us,” she said. “But when someone dies, will there be a church to provide a Christian burial? There are huge implications here.”