A worrying 60 per cent

It is said that a bishop was addressing a press conference during which he announced the result of a census about Mass attendance. Only 30 per cent of the members of his diocese went to Mass on Sunday.

A journalist asked: "Are you worried about the 70 per cent who do not go to mass on Sunday?" The bishop quickly answered: "To tell you the truth, I am more worried about the 30 per cent!"

We do not know whether this story is true or not but there is a kernel of truth in it. If the celebration of the Mass and the homily are not up to standard then one should worry.

The Curia's Secretariat for the Clergy decided to pass from worrying to doing something about it. It recently organised a one-day seminar - repeated three times - on the topic of the whipping boy of many churchgoers, i.e. the homily. Just under 300 participated.

The aim of the seminar was to help priests preach better. One hopes that the seminar will have the desired effect of improving the quality of the homilies delivered in church. But, even if this does not happen (one augurs it will), it was still a very positive initiative. Time will tell what the results will be.

In this piece we would like to comment on part of another result which was announced during the seminar. Rev. Dr Joe Inguanez, the head of Discern - the Curia research institute - announced and explained the result of a survey conducted by his institute. The survey questions concentrated on the people's reactions to homilies. Then there was just one question asking people about Sunday Mass attendance.

The results show that 59 per cent said that they went to Mass the previous Sunday. If our memory serves us right the last Mass census organised by the Church registered about 67 per cent. One of the comments made by the organisers of that census was that Mass attendance was going down by about one per cent a year.

We know that the methodology used during a census and that used during a survey are different so we are not in a position to comment on the significance of the result. So we would like someone from Discern to enlighten us.

Does the result of the Discern poll confirm the downward trend registered in the last census? How does the fact that about 70 per cent of the respondents of the Discern survey were women affect the results? Do women attend Sunday Mass more than men or not? If the answer is in the affirmative, does that mean that the actual number of people who go to Sunday Mass is below 60 per cent?

The survey had a number of limitations. The skewing in favour of female respondents makes the interpretation of the results more difficult. The same can be said about the possible extrapolation to different segments of the population. Will more research be done to get to the whole truth?

Numbers are important, in fact very important. But numbers do not tell us the whole truth. Does Discern plan to hold qualitative research to help explain why people do not go to Mass on Sunday?

While it is imperative that the celebration of the Mass be a real celebration, we do not believe that better celebration of the Mass will reverse the downward trend in attendance. Most probably the reasons are much more complex. The process of secularisation will not be halted just by better liturgies. If we know the reasons we can do something about them but if the reasons are only guessed or hypothesised than very little can be done.

One piece of good news was given in the Pjan Armoniku tal-Knisja f'Malta 2005-6, which was discussed during the General Assembly of the Synod. The Plan states that Discern will organise another Mass census next year. Such a census will give us much valuable information.

Can Discern tell us whether the census will be held towards the beginning or the end of the year? Will a full report be published? Perhaps it is too early to say but we believe that such good news should be well managed.

The same plan also tells us that Discern will be organising omnibus surveys that will help the Church keep up to date with social changes. This is another good piece of news. The Plan says "ikomplu l-Omnibus Surveys". Does this mean that some such surveys have already been organised? If yes, why were the results never published?

It seems that during 2005 Discern will be very busy doing all kinds of research since it will also be working with Caritas on the Poverty Observatory. This Observatory was a regular feature of Fr Benny Tonna's Discern. It seems that it will also be a regular feature of the present incarnation of Discern under the helm of Fr Inguanez.

We always believed that good pastoral planning should be based on sound research. The research plans announced by Discern make us hope that we are on the right track.

Could we be given more information about these exciting projects?