Tag: Mass Attendance
A blueprint for the future Catholic Church in Australia
Philippa Martyr explains her in her new book, Witness: The future Catholic Church in Australia, a blueprint for a thriving church in our country.
Change the world. Bring a pencil to Mass
When I saw that somebody had underlined certain verses in my Mass bulletin from Ephesians 5 on marriage, I couldn’t help but underline a few other passages myself, says Philippa Martyr.
Will you spend time with God? That depends on who you...
Would you willingly spend time with someone you didn’t love, or like, or even know very well? Would you spend an hour a week with them, simply because they asked you to?
Massgoing and the parable of the sower
It helps nobody to judge and condemn Catholics who have stopped going to Mass. Instead we should pray for them, and call to mind Jesus’ parable of the sower, writes Philippa Martyr.
The most common reason people give for never going to Mass
If you could get 100 non-massgoing Catholics in a room and ask them what they think of the church, and why they stay away, what would they say? asks Dr Philippa Martyr.
Faith formation begins in the family, but doesn’t end there
There’s a well-known recipe for making a mass going adult Catholic: two Catholic parents who both practice their faith. So by analysing the church’s marriage data since 1970, we can get a good idea of what’s caused the drop in Mass attendance, writes Philippa Martyr.
We already have a good idea of why Catholics don’t come...
The National Centre for Pastoral Research will undertake a two-year study of why Catholics aren’t attending Mass. Having been in the survey business for years, Dr Philippa Martyr offers a few thoughts that might make the job easier.
Who’s responsible for bringing back the church’s lost sheep?
In the Biblical parable, Jesus described a shepherd with a flock of 99 faithful sheep and one rogue sheep. In the church in Australia today, we have the reverse: around 92 missing sheep for every eight sheep going to Mass on Sunday. Whose job is it to bring them back?
National study to investigate reasons for decline in Mass attendance
With the national Mass attendance rate now at just over eight per cent, the National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR) will soon commence a study of reported reasons why people who continue to affiliate as Catholics do not participate regularly in Sunday Mass.
Philippa Martyr: An overview of the Australian Catholic Mass Attendance Report
A comprehensive five-yearly report shows that the Catholic Church in Australia lost about a third of all its Massgoing Catholics from 2016-2021, but there is good news for the church's future as well, writes Philippa Martyr in this first look at the report.
Philippa Martyr: Why do young Catholics want to follow the rules?
I’m continuing to unpack our national Catholic survey results and find out more about our group of around 700 massgoing Catholics under the age of 40., of which, 79 per cent said that their enjoyment in “taking part in the service itself and experiencing the liturgy” was a very important reason for them to go to Mass regularly.
