To My C & E (& AW) Bretheren
Posted by: tony on 12/16/2006 08:23 PM
Updated by: tony on 12/16/2006 09:45 PM
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Expires: 01/16/2007 12:00 AM
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Catholic Mom points me to an article regarding how one parish is handling the Christmas rush. It seems that they are issuing tickets to the popular children's Mass on Christmas.
The introduction of tickets for the Mass made national headlines at the end of November after some parishioners contacted RTE radio to complain that access to the Christmas Eve Mass was being limited to regular Mass attendees. They argued that Mass should always be open to all, whether they regularly attended church or only at Christmas and Easter.
Mass should be open to all, and as much as I'd love to see a whole gaggle of Catholics on Christmas, there are currently practical considerations in our diocese.
Due to the shortage of priests in our diocese, we are looking at supporting 120 parishes with 100 priests within the next 7 years. This means that we will have to close parishes and/or share priests.
In order to gather data to make their decision, one step they take is to count the people who attend weekend masses (Saturday vigil & Sunday). This is to determine capacity for Sunday Masses.
The kicker is that these "seat counts" are taken in October. They are called "the October counts". Neither Christmas, Easter or Ash Wednesday fall in October.
We "vote" for our parish by attending Sunday Mass every week at the parish of our choice.
So, My Christmas, Easter and Ash Wednesday brothers and sisters. We love to have you on Christmas, Easter and Ash Wednesday, even though sometimes it's difficult fitting you all in. We would prefer that we have you with us every week. We would love for you to be a part of us, and it only takes an hour a week. Just about the time it takes to watch "Everybody Loves Raymond".
If all of your tushies are in the pews on a weekly basis, they won't be able to close your favorite church, because all of the other churches, being equally full, could not handle the overflow.
Then we can start encouraging some of your sons and daughters to become priests and nuns, swelling the ranks of the priesthood and sisterhood, supplying the sacraments and teaching our next generation of children. Also, encouraging by their example the next generation of priests and nuns.
So how about it? Join us for Christmas. We in the music ministry have a fabulous program planned. But we'd also like to see you New Years Day (the solemnity of the Blessed Virgin) and every weekend from then on.
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