Social distancing in the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa May 31, the weekend last year worshipers returned to church. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Mass attendance in the Diocese of Honolulu saw a nearly 60% drop during the coronavirus pandemic according to the annual October count, released this month by the diocesan chancellor’s office.
The numbers fell from 46,141 in October of 2019 to 18,995 in 2020, a difference of 27,146 or 58.8%.
October is the month the diocese does a headcount of weekend Mass attendees. The numbers are the average single weekend total for that month.
The count took place seven months after Bishop Larry Silva dispensed Hawaii Catholics from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Catholics could still attend Mass, the bishop said, if they could do so safely. Still, fear of the virus kept many away.
Those who chose to go to church had to stand at least six feet apart, reducing the possible number that could fit in a church. The shrinkage of worship space caused by social distancing led many parishes to require reservations or tickets to attend Mass.
The parish that saw the biggest drop in attendance was the one with, by far, the largest congregation, St. Joseph, Waipahu. It went from 3,252 in 2019 to 848 in 2020, a loss of 2,404.
The parish reporting the largest percentage drop was the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace with at an 82% reduction in attendance, from 1,888 to 335, losing 1,553.
However, that number was artificially low because at the time some pews were blocked off for restoration work on nine interior columns. Cathedral office coordinator Joseph Ramos said that the count now is roughly 500 to 575. That’s still about a 70% loss.
Only one parish church showed an increase, Holy Rosary in Paia, Maui, that listed 113 in 2019 and 133 in 2020, a bump of 20, though in years prior to 2019, it averaged 160 Mass-goers.
Nineteen small congregations — mostly mission churches and foreign language Masses with fewer than 20 worshippers — suspended Masses altogether.
Small rural churches fared better, percentage-wise, than urban, suburban and tourist-oriented parishes. St. Augustine in Waikiki went from 1,461 Mass-goers in 2019 to 351 last year, a 76% decline.
According to St. Augustine’s pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona, the numbers have been steadily increasing since January as tourism picks up. The church, which ordinarily holds 1,000, has a social distancing capacity of only 165, though families sitting together can increase it to 180.
Meanwhile, St. Roch in Kahuku recorded only seven fewer congregants, 164 from 170.
Bishop Larry Silva first stopped public liturgies last year on March 17 based on recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health and government officials.
Public Masses in Hawaii resumed on the weekend of May 30-31 accompanied by strict rules that included the mandatory wearing of face masks, social distancing, the sanitizing of pews and other precautionary measures.
Those regulations have governed Mass attendance through to the present. In the meantime, the bishop dispensed Hawaii Catholics of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, while encouraging those who could safely go to Mass to do so. He issued the dispensation several months at a time, the present dispensation extending from Feb. 16 to April 1.
On March 5, he announced that he is ending the dispensation on April 3, the vigil of Easter.
The pandemic notwithstanding, Mass attendance has been slipping for decades
In the 1990s, the count averaged around 60,000. That number went down by about 5,000 during the first decade of the 2000s.
Five years ago, in 2016, the number was 49,884. In 2017, it had dropped to 48,210; in 2018, to 46,890.
Each year’s total cannot be considered an exact figure. The counts are done manually and tabulation errors happen. Some parishes fail to report their count. For most years, the overall total has to be adjusted to make up for the missing figures.
To obtain the October count, ushers or other volunteers count the number of people attending the Saturday vigil Mass and Sunday Masses on each weekend in October. Adults and children 12 and under are counted separately and then added together for a total.
The final count is the average of all the weekends. The weekend totals are added together and then divided by the number of weekends. The resulting average is the “October count” submitted to the diocese for its records.
October is chosen because it is considered a neutral month, least affected by vacations and high-attendance feasts like Christmas and Easter. However, October has its variables, like football season. It is also a slower month for tourist-oriented parishes.
