Last year, Our Lady of Victory/St. Joseph’s Church (in the depths of the inner-city) took in around $14,000 for their Christmas collection. That in itself was a massive achievement, especially considering the small size of the parish campus and the less-than-ideal surroundings on Pleasant Street.
This year, Our Lady of Victory/St. Joseph’s Church (in the depths of the inner-city) took in $23,000 for their Christmas collection.
Meanwhile, just a couple blocks away, St. Mary’s took in around $13,000. This is the parish that Bishop Clark has visited several times in the past couple years, and the parish which is one of the flagships of liberal dissent. Now I ask you this: Which parish is more vibrant? The one led by a priest who presents Church teaching as it is, or the one led by a lay-woman who shows open contempt for the teachings of the Church?
Tags: Demographic Shift, Orthodoxy at Work, St. Mary's Downtown
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I don’t believe the St. Mary Christmas attendance figure. For the weekend of the 2nd, they drew 454 people and had a collection that was just ~$300 less than the Christmas collection, for Masses that supposedly drew four times more people.
Can we get the attendance record for Our Lady of Victory? I would love to know those numbers as well.
Jim M. here: I have been going to Our Lady of Victory on Sundays over the past few months or so, and I believe that the attendance and the financial figures reflect the quality of the liturgy: good solid orthodox teaching, beautiful music and chant, and altar servers that are well trained, and act respectfully on the altar and sanctuary. I am hard pressed to find any of these qualities in many other parishes in the area. So, the Christmas financial figure comes as no surprise to me!
I think it is great that both St. Mary’s and Our Lady of Victory had wonderful, well attended Christmas Liturgies.
I think it is great that both St. Mary’s and Our Lady of Victory had wonderful, well attended Christmas Liturgies.
The point of the post is that one of them is growing.