Last weekend for what I believe was the first time since I arrived in Grant County, our parish cluster hit quadruple digits (1000+) in Mass attendance at Holy Family and Saint Paul. I am not certain of the seasonality of Mass attendance in Grant County historically, but I can say that we are experiencing a very positive trend since October of 2017 (just over 750) and October 2018 (close to 860).
Our positive numbers come in the midst of a wider diocesan discussion about an upcoming decrease in the number of priests in assignment due to scheduled retirements and the number of expected ordinations. There will be meetings in June in each deanery to look at how best to distribute priests and Masses more efficiently. For some parishes, this will mean having fewer Masses.
I am hopeful that with our current trend in numbers, we are in a position not only add a priest, but also to add a Mass at Holy Family. This is what I have requested from the priest personnel board. With lower numbers of priests, granting this request is not a foregone conclusion, but according to the metrics the diocese has circulated, Grant County currently has the second highest per priest workload in the diocese before factoring in my academic work.
Let's take a look at the numbers I saw last week:
5pm Saturday Mass at Holy Family: We had just over 200 people at this Mass. With the added chairs in the church, we can fit 225 people. This Mass was nearly full.
10am Sunday Mass at Saint Paul: We had around 380 people at this Mass last Sunday, which is very close capacity (425).
12:30pm Spanish Mass: We had just over 220 people at this Mass, which more than half full. We always have much higher attendance at this Mass when it is in Spanish. After consultations with both parishes' pastoral, staff, and finance councils as well as six months of experience with bilingual Holy Day Masses, we are looking at adding elements of English and Spanish at every 12:30pm so that both English and Spanish speakers can follow along at every 12:30pm Mass.
5pm Mass at Saint Paul: We had just under 200 people at this Mass, which is more than half full.
In light of these numbers, we could probably use a Mass at Holy Family on Sunday morning. The only way we could do this is with the permission of the bishop and another priest assigned. In the meantime, if you like having elbow room at Mass, I would recommend coming to the Sunday 5pm Mass.