Do games impact Mass attendance? Sometimes
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 20, 2006
Detroit – Just like no one can predict the outcome of a baseball game, no one can predict the attendance of Mass scheduled during a baseball game, either.
As one would expect, attendance was light at St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion, which has a 4:30 p.m. Saturday Mass, the same time as the start of game 4 of the American League Championship Series, the game in which Magglio Ordonez hit a three-run home run at the bottom of the ninth inning to send the team to its first World Series in 22 years. Fr. Ralph Besterwitch, SAC, St. Joseph's associate pastor, said, laughing, that attendance was "absolutely" down during last Saturday's Mass.
Usually, about 650 people attend, but that day there were about 350 people in attendance, he estimated. As he doesn't celebrate all of the weekend's Masses, he said he didn't know for sure of the missing Saturday crowd showed up on Sunday. However, he doubted that it would be the entire number that was missing from the day before.
He added that he hopes the Tigers should win it all.
Msgr. William Easton, pastor at National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak, said because there are so many families at Shrine – about 4,400 – it's hard to notice small fluctuations in Mass attendance. Shrine celebrates Saturday vigil Masses at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
"It's still such a large group," he said. "There are certain people who go to the Mass they go to – no matter what."
And, surprising Fr. Stephen Rooney, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Monroe, was that his 5 p.m. Mass that Saturday was standing room only. In fact, Eucharistic ministers had to go to the tabernacle for more hosts.
Admittedly not a sports fan, Fr. Rooney joked that maybe the high number was from people coming to church to pray for a Tigers win, instead of staying at home to watch the game. "I don't know what happened," he said.
Fr. Rooney said he'll occasionally see fluctuations in church attendance for big sporting events, but they're usually not as dramatic as last Saturday's numbers. However, since the high attendance led to the largest collection the parish has had in a couple of months, he was hoping for a repeat of high attendance for this weekend's vigil Mass.
|
