I see why families go to Mass in their neighborhoods, near the church school, etc. but there is another trend going on also on a smaller scale. Some catholics are traveling outside of their neighborhoods to attend more reverent parishes. I personally travel 20 miles but have a Catholic church 2, 5, and 10 miles from me. The difference in parishes may not be a problem in many areas but in the Seattle area, not all parishes are the same or even close.
I also see this trend where I live (Charlotte, NC). However, I don't like it and suspect it does more damage than good to the overall Church. It's a network effect and echo chamber problem all rolled up into one. Most Catholics will pick the church that aligns best with their "brand" of Catholic. And to be fair, because these churches are so homogenous, it's a cycle that's hard to break once started. Then you get different Catholic cliques in a city that are fairly insulated from each other and even look down on the others (for example, I have been informed that my church is for the "Catholic Lites". In turn, I have heard the church this guy attends is for the pre Vatican II heretics). These cliques would dissolve easier I imagine if what separated us was just distance instead of ideology. I think forcing all of us to go to our closest church would probably be uncomfortable for most involved and make different factions within the Church live with one another instead of the current state of self segregation. It's bad enough our social media and news media (this outlet excluded) is self filtered to create an echo chamber, I really don't think our interactions with the body of Christ should be.
Totally agree that this is an element that needs attention. It would be interesting for pastors/parish administrators to conduct an assessment of how many registered members of the parish should be attending a different parish geographically. They are voting with their feet. I agree with JRay below that it has probably amplified the echo chamber effect. I wanted to attend our nearest parish when we moved, but hubby and kids visited another one a bit farther away and liked the atmosphere better. It's been a good place for us, but I feel for the more local one, which is struggling.
I attend the next parish over rather than the one I'm in because shortly after we moved here and were looking for a parish (while still attending our old one at least half the time) the priest at the parish we lived in had a tendency to not "say the black and do the red" but worse he came close to simulating a sacrament (in a "healing mass" he blessed oil with the prayer from the chrism mass for the oil of the sick, then annointed parishioners who wanted it, then handed the oil to a nun and had her annoint him). That was the final straw although there was also disobedience about the vatican directive against using the tetragrammaton in worship, and just a generally insipid, not very reverent worship to begin with. I have a responsibility to raise my children in the faith, not some horrible watered down version that only inoculates them against the faith. To me, in part, that means that we attend a parish where liturgy is done according to the books and norms and is at least done with some reverence, even if it doesn't usually have all the beautiful "smells and bells". Interestingly, we're about to be paired with that parish and a third significantly more traditional parish as our own archdiocese "clusters" parishes into "families" and no one really quite knows how this will impact worship at the three parishes. We are already doing our religious education together.
Before the pandemic, there was a thing in the archdiocese of Detroit called the “mass mob” where an inner city parish would be selected each weekend for a “mob” to attend one of its masses to boost its collection and draw attention to a struggling parishes. Many of these old churches are so beautiful; it is hard to accept their closure. But once the population leaves, what can you do?
In the Diocese of Owensboro four different priests have three parishes each for a total of twelve parishes in the diocese. The last time my brother's parishes had a directory made, there were 205 total parishioners, many elderly because when they closed the coal mines most of the working age people had to go elsewhere to find work. Perhaps some businesses may decide to open facilities there and the population will increase again, but Chinese wages are probably much cheaper than American wages so it's not likely. But the rural diocese doesn't usually close churches; it adds them to a priest's workload instead. They did try having two priests responsible jointly for three parishes but found it didn't work out.
“I’m guessing for the first three, four, or five years, it’s going to be a lot of heavy lifting for the clergy. I hope it gets lighter after that.” That is quite a wee sentence all by itself there. Heavy lifting; for YEARS. Please pray for our priests. I am trying not to be the "whine and moan" parishioner of how the bishops/archbishops could have/should have done things differently. We are where we are. Praying for the grace to move forward and bringing as many souls with us. (writing from Cincinnati)
I see why families go to Mass in their neighborhoods, near the church school, etc. but there is another trend going on also on a smaller scale. Some catholics are traveling outside of their neighborhoods to attend more reverent parishes. I personally travel 20 miles but have a Catholic church 2, 5, and 10 miles from me. The difference in parishes may not be a problem in many areas but in the Seattle area, not all parishes are the same or even close.
I also see this trend where I live (Charlotte, NC). However, I don't like it and suspect it does more damage than good to the overall Church. It's a network effect and echo chamber problem all rolled up into one. Most Catholics will pick the church that aligns best with their "brand" of Catholic. And to be fair, because these churches are so homogenous, it's a cycle that's hard to break once started. Then you get different Catholic cliques in a city that are fairly insulated from each other and even look down on the others (for example, I have been informed that my church is for the "Catholic Lites". In turn, I have heard the church this guy attends is for the pre Vatican II heretics). These cliques would dissolve easier I imagine if what separated us was just distance instead of ideology. I think forcing all of us to go to our closest church would probably be uncomfortable for most involved and make different factions within the Church live with one another instead of the current state of self segregation. It's bad enough our social media and news media (this outlet excluded) is self filtered to create an echo chamber, I really don't think our interactions with the body of Christ should be.
Totally agree that this is an element that needs attention. It would be interesting for pastors/parish administrators to conduct an assessment of how many registered members of the parish should be attending a different parish geographically. They are voting with their feet. I agree with JRay below that it has probably amplified the echo chamber effect. I wanted to attend our nearest parish when we moved, but hubby and kids visited another one a bit farther away and liked the atmosphere better. It's been a good place for us, but I feel for the more local one, which is struggling.
I attend the next parish over rather than the one I'm in because shortly after we moved here and were looking for a parish (while still attending our old one at least half the time) the priest at the parish we lived in had a tendency to not "say the black and do the red" but worse he came close to simulating a sacrament (in a "healing mass" he blessed oil with the prayer from the chrism mass for the oil of the sick, then annointed parishioners who wanted it, then handed the oil to a nun and had her annoint him). That was the final straw although there was also disobedience about the vatican directive against using the tetragrammaton in worship, and just a generally insipid, not very reverent worship to begin with. I have a responsibility to raise my children in the faith, not some horrible watered down version that only inoculates them against the faith. To me, in part, that means that we attend a parish where liturgy is done according to the books and norms and is at least done with some reverence, even if it doesn't usually have all the beautiful "smells and bells". Interestingly, we're about to be paired with that parish and a third significantly more traditional parish as our own archdiocese "clusters" parishes into "families" and no one really quite knows how this will impact worship at the three parishes. We are already doing our religious education together.
Before the pandemic, there was a thing in the archdiocese of Detroit called the “mass mob” where an inner city parish would be selected each weekend for a “mob” to attend one of its masses to boost its collection and draw attention to a struggling parishes. Many of these old churches are so beautiful; it is hard to accept their closure. But once the population leaves, what can you do?
https://www.detroitmassmob.com/
We had them here in South Bend Indiana as well.
In the Diocese of Owensboro four different priests have three parishes each for a total of twelve parishes in the diocese. The last time my brother's parishes had a directory made, there were 205 total parishioners, many elderly because when they closed the coal mines most of the working age people had to go elsewhere to find work. Perhaps some businesses may decide to open facilities there and the population will increase again, but Chinese wages are probably much cheaper than American wages so it's not likely. But the rural diocese doesn't usually close churches; it adds them to a priest's workload instead. They did try having two priests responsible jointly for three parishes but found it didn't work out.
“I’m guessing for the first three, four, or five years, it’s going to be a lot of heavy lifting for the clergy. I hope it gets lighter after that.” That is quite a wee sentence all by itself there. Heavy lifting; for YEARS. Please pray for our priests. I am trying not to be the "whine and moan" parishioner of how the bishops/archbishops could have/should have done things differently. We are where we are. Praying for the grace to move forward and bringing as many souls with us. (writing from Cincinnati)