Within recent memory, the pews at my parish\u2019s main Sunday morning mass, the one with the children\u2019s liturgy, were reliably full, with latecomers standing at the back. \u00a0Attendance has fallen over the years, to be sure, whether due to the sexual abuse scandals or general societal\/demographic changes, but we\u2019ve plodded along. \u00a0Lately, though, it seems that attendance has had another, rather sudden and steep drop downwards \u2014 and it coincides with a new fundraising push, \u201cTo Teach Who Christ Is.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is an archidiocesan-wide campaign. \u00a0Each parish is assigned a goal, and told to find needs within the parish for 65% of the goal, with the Archdiocese taking the first 35% for its own purposes, including a scholarship fund for poor parish schools, and reallocation to poor parishes generally. \u00a0So our parish has identified the \u201cneeds\u201d of new school windows, refinished pews, and other deferred maintenance, as well as electrical updates and a new sound system. \u00a0And we\u2019ve struggled to meet the assigned goal \u2014 the fundraising started in late spring, and we\u2019re now at 2\/3s of the goal.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t help that there have been multiple fundraising campaigns lately: \u00a0when we first came, there was a campaign to build a \u201cgathering space\u201d addition. \u00a0This was a quick one as the cost was modest. \u00a0Then there was a much larger campaign, dictated, again, by an archdiocesan requirement to have a millenial fundraising campaign; in this case, the funds were used to wholly remodel the old convent, which had been used in the intervening years as a group home for the mentally disabled, until that organization ceased to lease the building; the building became a preschool and parish offices and meeting space. \u00a0Then, just before the recession hit, the parish launched another campaign, for exactly this sort of deferred maintenance, except that it met only a bit more than half of its goal, what with the recession and all. \u00a0So I can\u2019t blame people for feeling like the fundraising campaigns never stop.<\/p>\n
But \u2014 as I said, this is really starting to feel like it\u2019s backfiring. \u00a0If the weekly updates in the bulletin, and now, two weeks in a row, a renewed push with requests to fill out pledge cards during the homily, are turning people off from attending mass, this has got to stop. \u00a0We can\u2019t make the budget of our regular weekly collection \u2014 and, week after week, since the summer, anyway, we have been falling far, far short \u2014 so in what world does it make sense to continue making the pitch for even more? \u00a0Can we at least staunch the bleeding of parishioners? \u00a0Or is the Archdiocese, in its conviction that suburban parishes can be called on endlessly to support the city parishes, requiring that we keep on until we meet our goal, or collapse trying?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Within recent memory, the pews at my parish\u2019s main Sunday morning mass, the one with the children\u2019s liturgy, were reliably full, with latecomers standing at the back. \u00a0Attendance has fallen over the years, to be sure, whether due to the sexual abuse scandals or general societal\/demographic changes, but we\u2019ve plodded along. \u00a0Lately, though, it seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n