Have Catholics Come Home?

You may have seen the commercials this past year. “Are you a Catholic? Welcome home.” The Catholic Church unleashed a first of its kind public relations campaign (Catholics Come Home) to bring wavering or distant members of the Catholic faith back to the Church. According to Nielsen, an audience measuring system, these “evangomercials” were viewed by more than 125 million Americans an average of 9.7 times across the United States.

But how does this translate to actual Catholics coming home here in Braintree? The Archdiocese of Boston releases an annual directory listing parish statistics and contact information to the public. In each edition, it lists the average number of people attending Mass in a given weekend (all persons at each Mass are counted for a one month period, divided by the total number of Masses held in the month).

Average Mass Attendance per weekend-Braintree Parishes

Parish

2007

2011

2012

Saint Clare

1,077

600

925

Saint Francis of Assisi

1,419

1,384

1,197

Saint Thomas More

770

790

656

The Catholics Come Home campaign was launched Ash Wednesday 2011. More than a year later, in comparing the numbers from 2011 & 2012, St. Clare Parish has seen an increase in parishioners after a drop off from 2007 numbers. Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Thomas More have seen slight declines over the period. All three parishes are down from the numbers they had in 2007.

The Catholics Come Home organization touts results on their website. Where are these results in Braintree? The ads have stopped playing on television and the pews at the Parishes in Braintree, according to statistics released by the Archdiocese, are still not full.