Why Do Some Catholics No Longer Attend Mass?

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(PROVIDENCE, R.I.)-The Diocese of Providence today announced that Robert Dixon, the author of a report that examined a decline in Mass attendance for Australian Bishops, will share his findings and observation on Wednesday, November 28 from 7-8:30 p.m. at St. Anthony Parish, 5 Gibbs Street, North Providence. The general public is invited to attend.

“This is an unique opportunity for members of parish pastoral councils, finance council or other parish organizations to learn about recent trends in Mass attendance,” said Constance Thornton, Director of Pastoral Planning. “We are pleased to welcome a renown expert in the field of Mass attendance to share his observations on this most important topic.”

Robert Dixon is one of the authors of a report commissioned by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference on Catholics who have stopped attending Mass.

The evening discussion is sponsored by the Diocese of Providence’s Office for Ongoing Formation of Priests and the Committee to Study Declining Mass Attendance.

Dixon is the inaugural Director of the Pastoral Projects Office of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), located on the Melbourne Campus of Australian Catholic University. He has been closely involved in the multi-denominational series of National Church Life Surveys (NCLS) in Australia since 1996, and acts as an ongoing Catholic consultant to the US offshoot of that project, the US Congregational Life Survey.

Dixon is the author of The Catholic Community in Australia (2005), extracts of which have been published along with more than 20 similar profiles of other Christian denominations and religious groups as part of Australia’s Religious Communities: a multimedia exploration, a CD-ROM produced by the Christian Research Association. He is also principal author of the report Catholics Who Have Stopped Attending Mass (2007) and a joint author of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, the 1999 report of the Australian Bishops’ research project on the participation of women in the Catholic Church, and of two NCLS books.

Please RSVP for this discussion to Connie Thornton at 401/278-4610 or cthornton@dioceseofprovidence.org

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