Would we instantly renew the Church if we could snap our fingers and make every Mass-attending Catholic a mature missionary disciple? How long would it take for Mass attendance to increase, vocations to multiply, and the number of Baptisms and weddings to rise? How long, even if we could short-cut the labor of making all of our parishioners into mature missionary disciples, would it take to turn our downward trends around?
According to 2024 Pew Research, the United States has roughly 52 million self-identifying Catholics. Gallup’s 2024 research found that twenty-three percent of them come to Mass on Sundays. So, roughly 11,960,000 Catholics come to Mass every Sunday. Certainly, sending almost twelve million Catholics into the streets of America to witness to the Gospel would have an immediate impact on our metrics!
So, let’s think seriously about how Mass attendance would increase. The only way for Mass attendance to increase is when people who are not coming to Mass decide to come to Mass. Would missionary disciples have an immediate impact on that? What does it take for a lay person to actually, by God’s grace, evangelize a person in the world and get them to come to Mass? How long does that take?
I have been neighbors with a wonderful family for over fifteen years. They are fallen-away Catholics and their parents still practice their faith. They have great relationships with their parents and 
respect their faith. My wife and I have had many conversations with them about life. We trick-or-treat with them every Halloween. We take care of each other’s homes when we are on vacation. We commiserate with them through the grief of our kids graduating high school and leaving home. We were there for them and even prayed with them when they had a miscarriage. Our friendship has deepened over the years.
We have sown seeds of the Gospel through our fifteen-year deepening friendship. They see us go to Mass every Sunday. They trust and respect us. They even let us pray for them. However, whenever we have invited them and their kids to various opportunities to explore the faith or come back to the Church, they always say no.
They are not Marxists, hateful toward God, or hateful toward the Church. They are just normal good people who see no need for structured religion in their lives. They believe in God, probably believe in Jesus, and live truly good lives.
They are former Catholics! Perhaps the lowest-hanging fruit of Catholic evangelization! It should be easier to reverse their misconceptions about the Church through our witness of life. It should be easier to get them to give the Church another shot. If they came to Mass, they wouldn’t be confused about when to kneel and stand. They would know what to do. And yet, fifteen years later, our parish’s Mass attendance has not increased because we got them to return to Mass through our evangelical initiative toward them.
Are they abnormally stubborn? Perhaps my wife and I are really bad at this? Perhaps the Church’s training in evangelization for us wasn’t good enough? Or perhaps our parish is not doing enough to increase Mass attendance!? Maybe they just need the parish to offer more programs or events. But I don’t think so. Evangelization of people in the world, alienated from the Church, often takes a long time. It requires great patience and perseverance.
Why does evangelization take so long? Find out in Part 2 of this series.
Jason Simon is the President of the Evangelical Catholic. The Evangelical Catholic’s mission is to equip Catholics to live out the Great Commission. Learn more.
