Regional Meetings to Focus On Issues of Growth, Decline

OKLAHOMA CITY — In 1997 an average of 33,782 English-speaking Catholics attended Mass each Sunday in parishes scattered throughout the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. That same year, Spanish-speaking Cath-olics at Sunday Mass in the Archdiocese averaged 4,290.

Fast forward to 2005 and the English-speaking Catholics at Mass on Sunday average 38,526, an incr-ease of 14 percent over the past eight years. A healthy boost, but not nearly as healthy as the 166 percent growth rate of the Hispanic attendance at Sunday Mass.  

Today, the average number of Hispanics at Sunday Mass is more than 11,400.

The surging rate of growth among the Hispanic Catholic community will be one of the issues discussed when priests and parish representatives meet in the upcoming Regional Meetings.

The meetings begin in early October and run through the first week of November. Regional Meeting sites will include Prince of Peace at Altus; Saint Mary in Ardmore; Saint Francis in Oklahoma City; Christ the King in Oklahoma City; Saint Benedict in Shawnee; Saint Peter in Woodward and Saint Mary in Guthrie.

Because of a declining number of priests, participants in the Regional Meetings will be confronted with two main questions:

1. What changes can be made to meet the needs of the Church in your region?

2. How can the human and material resources of the Church in your region be used more effectively?

According to figures produced by the Council of Priests there are half as many Archdiocesan priests today as there were in 1980. Also, 35 percent of active priests today are over age 60.

Since 1997, the Church has experienced a 32 percent growth rate in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City with much of that growth occurring in urban and suburban parishes. While the Hispanic growth has been the most dramatic, the Catholic faith has also experienced a healthy 17 percent growth rate among Vietnamese people.

In the Archdiocese six different languages are used to celebrate Sunday Mass. English tops the list at 182, while Mass is celebrated in Spanish 41 times. Bilingual Mass is celebrated seven times each Sunday with Vietnamese offered at Mass five times.