Most millennials don’t believe in God.
The sex abuse scandal is still front page news.
80% of Catholics don’t go to church anymore.
It’s not easy being a Catholic these days. I was raised to be a proud Irish Catholic with an uncle who was a priest and a grandmother who was a close friend of Cardinal Humberto Medeiros. She even had a Catholic Chapel in her house where we held mass every Sunday during the summer. For me, watching the decline of the Catholic church has been depressing. When my family moved to Belmont, MA, we found a wonderful local Catholic church called St. Joseph’s run by a terrific priest called Father Thom. Due to declining attendance and revenues, the diocese in Massachusetts has been forcing some churches to merge with others to share resources and save money. St. Joseph’s was “merged” with St. Luke’s and together they are called, NewRoads Catholic Community.
As a member of the New Roads Catholic Community Collaborative Pastoral Council, my fellow volunteers and I tried to help increase the number of parishioners at NewRoads, increase our revenue and improve our fundraising programs. The biggest change is that at NewRoads, mass is not held in the 50+-year-old church. Instead, it is held in a large “worship space” next door which has a stage, large video screens, professional lighting and audio, etc. The band and singers are extremely very talented and professional. Most people love music and modern songs. The idea is to kind of reinvent the Catholic Church and make it more relevant to the way people live today. And to find new ways for people to connect with God and each other.
Every Sunday when I look around at the 10:00 Family Mass and I see lots of new faces and bigger crowds, it inspires me. Our hopes, dreams, and ambition are high, but it takes time to turn around a 2,000-year-old organization. Not to mention there are lots of folks who don’t want to change a thing. We have a very committed team of dedicated and talented folks who are working their tails off along with Father Thom. We are attracting more people to some masses, but overall revenues continue to fall.
