Cheri Perkins Mantz reported in our Catholic Herald on reaction to one parish's program of providing reduced parishioner rate tuition in its grade school only if the student's parents attend Mass regularly. For this post, I've added parishioner/non-parishioner tuition rates to parish statistics.
"Fr. John Yockey, pastor at St. Jerome, Oconomowoc" [stats D5 7th 35% $3,100/4,500] originated the program.
"Fr. Thomas DeVries, pastor at Lumen Christi in Mequon" [stats D10 4th 36% $2,859/7,247] saw the problem but, as to solutions, said “I think it’s a question that needs to be answered at the parish level individually."
"Fr. Mike Moran, pastor of St. Mary in West Bend" [stats D6 13th 24% $2,000/4,800] also acknowledged the problem, but said “I wouldn’t go to that extreme of taking attendance...”
"Fr. John Schreiter has been pastor of St. Katharine Drexel, Beaver Dam" [stats D7 12th 30% $1,695/2,120] said “Though I think it’s extreme, I support him and I agree with him [Fr. Yockey]...”
"Fr. Patrick Heppe is pastoral team moderator at Holy Family Parish in Fond du Lac" [stats D8 13th 36% $1,743/2,743] and "said he agrees with Fr. Yockey’s attendance plan, but is unsure if he could implement a similar program ..."
A very small and unscientific sample, so as a shaky generalization, the bigger the subsidy, the less inclined the priest was to condition it on Mass attendance. Note the spread in non-parishior tuition rates from $2,120 to 7,247, and parishioner reductions from $425 to 4,388.
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