Lower attendance across diocese sparks changes
WINDSOR TERRACE — A number of parishes in the Diocese of Brooklyn are making adjustments in Mass schedules after Bishop Robert Brennan released a letter to the faithful informing them of a drop in attendance.
First, the figures: In the diocese, those numbers fell sharply — by 40% — in the five years between 2017 and 2022, according to Bishop Brennan, who sent a letter to all parishes last month detailing the situation.
The average Mass attendance in 2022 was 124,031 — significantly lower than the average just five years earlier, which was 205,502. There are approximately 1.5 million Catholics in Brooklyn and Queens, meaning that on any given Sunday, less than 10% of them are in church.
While disappointing, the numbers “weren’t terribly surprising,” Bishop Brennan told Currents News, “because it reflects what I’ve been hearing from the pastors and what I’ve seen going around to visit the different parishes.”
The most visible effect will be a reduction in the number of Masses at many churches, Bishop Brennan said. To that end, he has asked pastors to evaluate their Mass schedules in consultation with their parish pastoral councils and make the necessary adjustments.
Despite the statistics, the diocese is working to draw Catholics back to church. “We have challenges before us. But there is hope,” Bishop Brennan emphasized.
The efforts to increase Mass attendance include large-scale events as well as initiatives at the parish level, said Father Joseph Gibino, vicar for evangelization and catechesis.
One large-scale event likely to generate lots of excitement and a great deal of buzz is the diocese’s Eucharisric Revival, set to take place in the spring, he said.
The revival, which will feature a day of prayer, Eucharistic processions, and music, is expected to draw thousands of people.
In an effort to attract young adults, the diocese is establishing a Brooklyn chapter of the nationwide organization Young Catholic Professionals.
The diocese is also hoping the newly revived Newman Club, an on-campus Catholic organization at Queens College, is a place that could excite young adults about the Church. Bishop Brennan celebrated a Mass there in September to mark the start of the semester.
There are also things happening at the parish level, Father Gibino said. “Many of our parishes are thinking outside the box,” he added.
As an example, he pointed to Our Lady of Angels Church in Bay Ridge, where a Thanksgiving Day breakfast drew more than 200 people. Events such as a breakfast are important, because they allow the church to be seen as a warm, caring place that people want to return to, he explained.
“I’m a big believer in ‘If you feed them, they will come,’ ” Father Gibino added.
The key is to move forward, Father Gibino explained. “We cannot look to the future through the rearview window,” he said.
Bishop Brennan informed the faithful that as the diocese moves forward, parishes will be collaborating more on faith formation programs, Mass schedules, and ministries.
“Not every parish needs to have an early Sunday morning Mass, but somebody does. Not everybody needs to have a later evening Mass, but somebody does. We want to try to accommodate Mass schedules in such a way that people can avail themselves,” he explained.
It is important for parishes to work together on faith formation programs because enrollment differs sharply from parish to parish — with some churches boasting large numbers while others have very few students.
Msgr. Joseph Grimaldi, vicar general for the diocese, said that combining faith formation programs does not necessarily signal that a full scale merger between two parishes is in the offing. “An official canonical merger is not always necessarily the end product of these partnerships,” he said.
Meanwhile, the diocese is grappling with the drop in Mass attendance.
There are several reasons for the dropoff, according to Bishop Brennan, who pointed to changing demographics as one factor.
For one thing, the high cost of living in New York City has driven people out, he said. “And so we really do have a crisis here in Brooklyn and Queens and a lot of families are struggling. These things are related,” he added.
And in neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, many of the people moving out are Catholic while the folks moving in are the so-called “nones” — people with no religious affiliation. “That presents challenges and opportunities,” Bishop Brennan said.
Msgr. Grimaldi said the pandemic, during which churches were closed for several months in 2020, hurt a lot because many Catholics did not come back when the churches reopened.
Also the major population loss in 2020 due the pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau said the population in Brooklyn and Queens decreased by almost 100,000 from July 2021 to July 2022.
But the Diocese of Brooklyn isn’t alone in having to deal with declining church attendance, Msgr. Grimaldi said. “What’s happening in our diocese is happening all over the country,” he added. The statistics bear that out. According to a Pew Research Center survey in February, only 23% of U.S. Catholics regularly attend Mass.
However, not all churches in the diocese are seeing lower numbers. In fact, some parishes are thriving with growing numbers of migrants coming to the diocese.
Bishop Brennan said he often employs a metaphor involving the erosion of sand at a beach to explain this. “Sometimes the beach washes away over here but then it gets extended over there,” he said.