Last fall we embarked on a diocesan-wide parish survey throughout Southeast Texas. I thank the many who participated in this survey in order to both affirm and challenge our community of faith to be the best it can be. In the coming months your pastors will be reviewing the results with your parish councils in order to bolster already existing strengths. As bishop, I have the vantage point of looking at the whole of the diocese and want to share the following observations with you as we move forward in faith together in the years to come. I am so proud that close to 7,000 of you participated in sharing your thoughts by completing the survey. Your opinion matters! And it is not just the number, but the good distribution of age range that is so encouraging: 17 percent under 35; 26 percent between 36-55; 21 percent between 56-65; 39 percent over 65.
I want to share a few diocesan-wide statistics as you prepare to unpack your own parish’s individual information. I was very pleased to read that 75 percent of our respondents are generally satisfied with their parish experience and find them to be a welcoming community, 79 percent enjoy Sunday Mass and 82 percent like the preaching! Wow, that is impressive, and for this I am very grateful. Our priests and parish staff work hard and try to make our parishes and the “Sunday experience” the best it can be for you. You also affirmed our priests when asked, “What drives parishioners to recommend their parish to a friend and to indicate that the parish is helping them grow spiritually” and 82 percent answered with “the pastor”! Thank you to our spiritual fathers.
In addition, 75 percent of the participants noted that the parish offers support in time of need. Eighty percent find that the parish helps their spiritual growth. Our young people in religious education and in our Catholic schools are being well served as shown by both questions revealing a score of above 80 percent. One last amazing note was that 64 percent stated that they tithe 10 percent or more to their parish and other charities. This shows the extraordinary nature and generosity of our local Church and is much higher than the national average. I have been humbled by your support of your individual parish and the Appeal for Catholic Ministries (formerly the BFA — Bishop’s Faith Appeal), as together we care for the diocese’s many ministries in Southeast Texas.
Lest we get overly congratulatory to all of the good mentioned above, as you can tell, there are 20 percent to 25 percent of the participants who are not so pleased with their parish experience for one reason or another. We must never stop striving for excellence, hospitality, good and concise preaching, beautiful liturgies, better outreach and evangelization and ministry to every age group. In addition, one last note, 76 percent of those surveyed stated that they have never invited a young man to consider the priesthood. We need to flip that number as we continue to build up our presbyterate for the future (and please don’t forget your one Hail Mary a day for this intention!). These are the questions that I look forward to hearing you answer as individual parish families as you review your particular results. I will also unpack more particulars in a future article. There is so much to learn, affirm and accept the challenge to be the best we can be as a faith community.