The Deacon's Bench
Detroit-area Catholics rated a priest shortage as the biggest issue facing the Catholic Church, and nearly two-thirds of Catholics gave their parishes a “good” or “excellent” rating in promoting Catholic goals, according to results released Wednesday of an Archdiocese of Detroit survey of some 41,000 Catholics.
Some eight out of 10 respondents said the top challenge facing the church is the shortage of priests. The next biggest challenge, cited by some 64% of respondents, was “engaging teens and young adults” in parishes.
Detroit-area Catholics rated the quality of worship service as the first characteristic they look for in choosing a parish and want their pastors to display a “welcoming spirit,” according to the survey that was administered last fall.
Some 30% of Catholics surveyed rated their parish as “good” and 33% rated their parishes as “excellent” at meeting various goals.
The survey drew its vast majority of respondents from active church-going Catholics, despite being open to people who were no longer active Catholics or who had left the faith.Some 94% of survey respondents were registered Catholic parishioners, and 85% said they attended mass weekly. Half of them also were involved in a parish activity other than going to mass.
The surveys were anonymous, but participants could identify their parishes. Results were shared with parish leadership. There were questions about whether participants found their pastor and parish “welcoming” or whether they found services “boring,” for example.
Some 1.38 million people in the six counties that make up the Archdiocese of Detroit identify as Catholics. About 700,000 are registered at about 240 Catholic parishes in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Lapeer and St. Clair counties. About 220,000 attend mass every week, according to archdiocese statistics.
The last survey conducted by the archdiocese was in 1998-1999.
The survey reported that those who don’t attend mass cited the reason why as “mass is boring/irrelevant to me.”
Read more at the link—where you’ll also find links to the full survey results.
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