Time to change parishes?

I hadn't realized changing parishes was being encouraged, but there it was in Annemarie Scobey-Polacheck's "Training Wheels" column in the Parenting supplement to the November 29, 2007 issue of "our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald (print only).

After some other switches, they sought a parish "that had a population of white, Puerto Rican and African American members" to match her family's demographics, "plus good music and a vibrant priest". About a year ago they chose St. Francis of Assisi Church [stats D13 9th/13 43%].

Due to the 10-minute long Sign of Peace that allows for chatting and introductions, we've gotten to know about a dozen parishioners.

They might not be there every week, since they also remained members of St. Monica Church [stats D11 11th/11 21%]. St. Francis reported average Sunday attendance of 293 divided among three Masses. With those numbers, after a year of 10 minutes of mid-Mass socializing, I'm surprised they don't know everyone at Mass, rather than a dozen people. (Her family's dual membership makes me wonder if they're double-counted in reported parish membership, and also if that's factored into calculating attendance percentages.)

Now that there are parish-shopping tips in our Archdiocesan newspaper, maybe I'll have to reconsider my resistance to that idea.

Some of Ms. Scobey-Polacheck's past column have been collected in book form as Discovering Motherhood.