SEATTLE — More people are attending Mass at Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Seattle than in 2022, data collected by the archdiocese reveals.

“We continue to see Mass attendance recover from the pandemic,” said Tom Martin, the archdiocese’s chief information officer.

Every October, each parish in the archdiocese counts the number of attendees at every weekend Mass for the month. The 2023 counts show that an average of 103,000 people attended Mass each week at archdiocesan Catholic churches and at Western Washington University, the University of Washington and Seattle University. In October 2022, that number was about 86,000.

“The similar count in October 2019 was about 117,000 people,” Martin said.

While Mass attendance is up overall, “there are some rural areas and pockets of the metro Seattle area that are still struggling with overall low attendance,” he explained.

The strongest growth, however, was seen “in parishes with strong ethnic communities,” particularly parishes serving Hispanic and Vietnamese Catholics, Martin said.

Sacred Heart Parish in Tacoma is one of those places. Its weekend attendance number grew by nearly 700 people since 2019. 

“Our parish has attracted a lot of immigrants looking for a home parish. This is not new, but it continues to be true,” said Jesuit Father Elias Puentes, Sacred Heart’s pastor. “We also have a large, solid group of people that have been longtime parishioners.”

He thinks there are a lot of factors that have contributed to the parish’s growth. 

Father Puentes explains that, in addition to the five weekend Masses in Spanish and one in English, the parish offers a variety of “ecclesial and cultural and devotional groups, plus we are blessed to have a large and vibrant faith formation” program that attracts many families.

That means not only has Mass attendance increased but also “the reception of sacraments has increased,” Father Puentes said.

Bernie Wymore, a pastoral assistant at Sacred Heart, agrees that Spanish-language Masses and many program offerings are reasons for growth but said strong leadership has also made a difference.

“Father Elias is a great teacher. He loves the children and incorporates them at Mass,” Wymore said. “As an administrator, Father Elias has brought many good changes to Sacred Heart.”

Staying connected

At St. Michael Parish in Olympia, October 2023 Mass attendance was up by 414 people from October 2019.

That increase reflects the growth St. Michael is seeing in almost every other area, said parish administrator Chris Peterson.

“Last year, our weddings doubled from nine to 20,” he said. “Baptisms are doing well, but some real growth has been in our RCIA program. We have more families coming into the church, many from our school.”

Peterson attributes some of the growth to the parish’s outreach efforts during the pandemic.

“We decided we would reach out to every household (about 2,400) and check in with them, pray for them and invite them to join us for Mass” when the church reopened, he explained.

By divvying up the parish list among most of the St. Michael staff, they were able to contact every household twice, he said.  

“The impact of these calls was great, the connections made. … People started coming back and getting involved,” he said.

Among the ways Peterson sees the impact is a 50% growth in participation in St. Michael’s small faith-sharing groups and a parish retreat that grew from 150 people to 425 in one year. 

“This personal invitation and [ensuring] our parishioners feel cared for through prayer are bearing fruit,” he said.