Poor Mass Attendance in Mexico
From Catholic News Service:
In a city where 90% say they are Catholic, only 6 -9% attend mass regularly on Sunday.
A report published by the Archdiocese of Mexico City said only 6 percent to 9 percent of its Catholics attend Sunday Mass regularly. The report, which was written by the archdiocesan information director, Carlos Villa Roiz, said the archdiocese's churches are packed for Christmas, Ash Wednesday and popular saints' feast days.
If all the archdiocese's Catholics attended Mass, the archdiocese would be challenged to meet the demand, said the report published in the archdiocese's weekly bulletin March 11. "If all Catholics attended Sunday Mass, the (churches) of Mexico City would be inadequate, and priests would have to direct Mass outdoors," it said. Mexico City and the surrounding metropolitan area form one of the world's largest urban conglomerations."
There isn't a single country where, if all the resident Catholics showed up at Mass on a given Sunday, the church wouldn't be completely overwhelmed. We complain of priestly shortages now and sacramental overload. What would we do if even the majority of our people decided to return to the practice of the faith?
It would be a nice problem to have. Christmas and Easter all year round.
posted by Sherry W @ 3:41 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
I'm convinced that much of the church attendance problem relates as much to the exhaustion and time demands of today's society as it does to faith itself.
Since the 1980's I've been spitting mad at the "re-engineering" and "downsizing" and "do more for less" and "women have to work harder to break that glass ceiling" and all the other excuses employers have put onto employees to make them work outside of 9 to 5. Ironically the traditional family who might be the prime churchgoers are hit even harder by the long work hours, the endless after school activities and demands, household, etc. I know people who just crave sleep and run errands on the weekend.
In Mexico, there are entire towns whose population is down 20% or more due to the males having to be in the US to work, leaving the women to do all the work at home, and a further break down of motivation to attend church.
This is just one aspect of the problem, yes I know, but it's one that I rarely see talked about but I've experienced first hand. It's only when I've been unemployed have I been able to attend Vespers, for example. LOL. It's become totally crazy and out of hand.... I would get dirty looks for trying to leave work at 6 pm and that's after being there at 8 am. And the crushed lower and middle class where many have to work more than one job to get by. While health experts drone that people need more sleep to be healthy, etc... and their employers downsize and increase the work on others. And how many single working mothers are there? They are exhausted beyond belief. It is plain wrong how the hours people are expected to be at work (and weekend work) has become so bloated, just to make ends meet (or get ahead).
*One of my top five rants*
Wonder how many hungry people would be fed; naked or poorly clothed, clothed; homeless, housed; injustices, made just; etc, if all Mexicans took their faith seriously???? Wonder how much better their country might be? That is the real tragedy of Catholics who are Easter/Christmas Catholics.
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