Parishes throughout the Diocese of Oakland are embarking on ambitious “Divine Renovation” plans to re-energize themselves and grow.
Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ, established three priorities to revitalize and evangelize the Church: improving the Sunday Mass experience, emphasizing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and forming the people into Missionary Disciples.
At St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Martinez, said Rev. Anthony Huong Van Le, parochial administrator, that involved “taking an assessment of where we were.”
Church records indicate in 1962, 2,000 people attended Sunday Mass. There were no Spanish- language Masses and Martinez’s population was 8,000. Now, 450-500 people attend weekend Masses, while the city population has grown to 40,000.
“We had to question, what has gone wrong,” Father Le said.
“Our church is still amazing and beautiful after 80 years,” he said, “but we realized, we’ve had no major improvement of the church in 50 years.”
So to bring the parish from preservation mode to an active missionary community, a five-year plan was adopted in December, beginning with an upgrade to the church building.
As parishioner Tom Greerty wrote in the Aug. 25 bulletin, the church “has needed to be cleaned and shined for a long time.”
During the $300,000 renovation, Masses are held in the Parish Hall.
Full story at The Catholic Voice.
1962 as base period. No wonder the numbers are what they are. I’m not sure a small [$300k doesn’t get a lot of work] renovation will help.
New carpets and polishing the furniture doesn’t bring folks back to Mass. Incisive preaching focusing on those things which will bring us to heaven and those things which will bring us to hell; a focus on the True Presence; the rosary; etc, etc. A focus on the fundamentals of our faith. Not the environment. Not social justice. Not activism.
But that’s our problem. We have lost our way. From the Holy Father right down to the layman. We have rejected what we dare not ignore. And God? Well, He is punishing us for our obstinate demeanor.
Well said Gabriel, we have earned his wrath….
I couldn’t agree more.
You are absolutely right. Only by living our faith will the Church be renewed. Yes, it is good to have church buildings that raise our hearts to God, but more important than buildings is what we do inside them. And for too long we have been using them as social halls,concert halls, performance venues and who knows what else. Church is the house of God and the place to pray. Period.
The answers given by the pastor and bishop are laughable. People have left the Catholic Church because it fails to teach the True Faith, and, because it has abandoned its own history, its own DNA, in adopting a committee-made liturgy. People respect Tradition; just look at the world-wide resurgence of faithful Catholic Traditional orders and parishes. Return to Catholic Latin Mass, to the sacraments as they have been given for centuries and people will return.
Offering the Traditional Latin Mass on Sundays and Holy Days might also help.
The Catholic Church is competing for souls just like every other denomination. Some call it evangelization. We all tend to live in our own bubbles. The TLM crowd says that if we offered more TLM masses, the crowds would come. The NO crowd says that we have inspiring liturgies and our door are open. But Catholics don’t evangelize, do we? Let us deal with facts. There are 522 churches that offer the TLM in the US compared to 17,000 other parishes. About 100K people attend TLM on a typical Sunday. About 30-50 million people attend the NO on a typical Sunday. Is the TLM growing? Of course. Is it a significant factor in the US church? Not really, when you look at the numbers. Old churches need renovation every few years. The really old ones could use a sand-blasting. Give this parish credit for taking the first step in attracting people to the Mass.
Catholic Church is the Church of Christ, not just another denomination. There is no “TLM crowd” and “NO crowd”. There are Catholics who live their faith and those who are Catholics in name only. Catholics do not evangelize? Please learn about Catholic faith before you make your blanket statements and label things you do not know or do not understand.
The Catholic Church is not a denomination. The Catholic Church IS the Church.
I believe that both the New Mass (Novus Ordo) and the old Latin Mass are both good, and valid. However– reverence and respect for God are often missing, in the New Mass– and tragically missing also, in much of today’s Church art and architecture, as well as the liturgy! Church Tradition of the ages, is a precious thing! And to practice the Faith and get to Heaven– you need good discipline!– not foolish “freedoms!” You must follow Christ– not yourself!!
People have left the Catholic Church for a variety of reasons: increasing secularism in society, the sex abuse scandals, financial corruption and scandals, arrogant clergy and lay people, the prohibition against artificial conception, and very strong competition from Protestant churches which offer a lot more programs for families. IMHO, the traditional Latin mass is not going to be the main factor that brings back droves of people.
Mary Kate, the simple fact is that the contraception pill eventually leads to the destruction of the woman’s body — thus the rise in earlier and earlier breast cancer. I did not get it until my late forties. What helped save me was that I never took any kind of estrogen, including the contraceptive pill, nor had an abortion. The three times I had cancer minutely, the estrogen in the pill would have caused my cancer to spread faster. There are other medical problems with it, including stroke. Go green. Married people can use natural family planning if needed. All else is just playing Russian Roulette with ones body.
BO: Have to fix your stats a bit. No offense meant here.
30-50 million people do not attend the Mass of Paul VI on a Sunday in the US. The real number I suspect is more like 10-20 million out of the 70 million Catholics the USCCB claim is our population. No credible source I’m aware of thinks that contemporary Sunday Mass attendance is near half of total US Catholic population. 15-25% is (sadly) a more realistic number. In my diocese (won’t say which) the number is 13%.
I think, first of all, that people need good training in the Catechism, and to understand the Mass and the Sacraments, and how to be a good, practicing Catholic! In 1962, we had all of that, worldwide! And it always helps, to have both reverent Novus Ordo Masses, as well as maybe a beautiful Latin Tridentine Mass! And good, solid, serious religious programs in parish churches for marriage and family life, are desperately needed, today! Many people leave our Church for Protestant evangelical churches, for strong marriage and family life religious support, today!
Bob One: You are entirely incorrect (and thanks for the stats update, Fr. Michael): The point is not numbers. Just think, prior to the “implementation” of VII, everyone — 100% — went to the TLM (some other versions were approved for certain orders, etc.), so your point is, well, a non-sequitur. The revolution demanded after VII has created a NewChurch that is just not believable, or appealing. Soon, us older parishioners will die, leaving few left to attend and support the NewChurch. Catholic Tradition is lasting Catholicism.
The Catholic Church has lost millions of members in the last 40 years, most as a result of the sex abuse crisis -26 million calls themselves former Catholics. In 1970 there were 47.9 million Catholics vs about 70 million today. Much of the gain has come from immigrants. Mainline Protestant churches have lost millions as well in the same period. Evangelical denominations have grown to be the largest segment of the Christian community in the US. What are they doing to create this growth? What can we learn from them? What does the data say? One thing we know is that people don’t start going to a church because of its theology. They start going because it offers them something they need.
#2
What do people need? They need help with their marriage, with their kid’s drug problem, with the stress of the workplace, recreation for the kids, small communities of people who support them. They may go to a church because of the music program or the great sermons that are meaningful. Once there, they are invited to become believers, they are encouraged to join Bible study groups, attend Wednesday evening worship or small group meetings. They are encouraged to become members of any of the ten or twenty committees or join the management. The Pastors worry about leadership, pastoral care, etc. They don’t try to run the place. Our Priests need to be retrained in how to “do” church. The seminaries are spewing theologians who don’t know how to be Priests. It’s not VII or the Latin Mass. We aren’t serving the temporal and spiritual needs of the people. Why should they come? Why should they join?
Bob One, you just continue to get it wrong. People only go to, and stay at, a Church because of its theology. Your “social services as cure” approach will continue to drive out people. No one comes to Mass to learn about income inequality or immigration or nutty environmental/global warming issues. While these issues are beloved at the Vatican, they mean nothing in transmitting Christ’s words (who also did not preach on these). This approach is death to the institutional Church.
St. Christopher, you are correct again, sort of. No one comes to Mass to hear about …. My point is simply that people don’t come to Mass. When we get them thru whatever means, then we can teach them about the Mass, and get them to come to it. Evangelization means getting people who don’t know anything about the Mass to come to it on a regular basis, and also believe its teachings.
Bob One, you know what this means. People are ignoring the NewChurch of Pope Francis. Simply because the Pope “has the buildings,” does not mean that he has the correct understanding of the Faith. Christ told the Apostles to convert the word to His Words, and His Church. The effeminate, and offensive, manner of many NewChurch clergy, and of the blather coming out of so many bishops, makes people wonder what happened to the True Faith. It can be found.