Dr. K, who posts on Rich Leonardi’s “Ten Reasons” web site, has come up with some interesting information regarding Mass attendance at Sacred Heart Cathedral. He estimates weekend Mass attendance at the Cathedral (five Masses in total) to be 470. He bases this on Mass counts that were provided to Rich Leonard’s blog by attendees at the Cathedral. He also factored in the weekly collection amount to come up with his estimate.

I have attended Sunday Mass at the Cathedral several times in the past year. I have never counted more than 100 attendees and have seen numbers as low as 40 or 50. Dr. K’s analysis indicates an average Mass attendance of 94 for the five Masses. His analysis supports my experience and the experience of various bloggers on the Ten Reasons web site.

Granted that these numbers are merely estimates, but there can be no doubt that the Cathedral has seen a dramatic decline in attendance since the renovation. Average weekend Mass attendance at the Cathedral was 1,081 in the year 2000. The entire Cathedral Community’s (Sacred Heart, Holy Rosary, and Most Precious Blood) Mass average attendance for that year was 1,851.

In conclusion, the Cathedral Communitie’s average weekend Mass attendance has dropped from a hard count of 1,851 to an estimated 470 in just 9 years. Certainly some of the members of Most Precious Blood and Holy Rosary are attending Mass outside of the Cathedral cluster. However, the precipitous decline in Mass attendance at the Cathedral since the renovation and the clustering makes an emphatic statement. It demonstrates a resounding rejection by the laity of these two key diocesan initiatives.