The holidays this year presented challenges for Archdiocese of Vancouver parishes, many of which implemented creative solutions that turned out to be unnecessary due to lower than expected Mass attendance.
Snow, frigid temperatures, new COVID restrictions, and growing confusion and malaise over shifting health mandates all appear to have been factors contributing to reduced numbers at Christmas and New Year’s Masses across the archdiocese.
Many parishes, anticipating holiday throngs, instituted plans to accommodate overflow crowds that never appeared. St. Francis de Sales Parish in Burnaby put out extra seating that went unused, while the overflow chapel set up at Christ the Redeemer in West Vancouver was unnecessary.
An unofficial count at St. Clare of Assisi in Coquitlam showed its highest Mass attendance only managing to hit about a third of its 900-person capacity.
Another contributing factor for low turnout may have been confusion over the Christmas and Jan. 1 holy days falling on Saturday, with some people attending a Saturday anticipatory Mass to cover their holy day and Sunday obligations together. While that could explain why fewer practising Catholics showed up, it doesn’t account for the absence of Christmas Catholics who typically attend Mass once or twice a year.
Some parishioners suggested the snow and cold weather mixed with the COVID Omicron variant and increased restrictions on communal activities by health officials played a significant role in the attendance drop-off.
With the new provincewide public health orders limiting attendance at worship services to 50 per cent capacity unless everyone is vaccinated, as well as an announcement Dec. 18 of an effective prohibition of gatherings of non-vaccinated individuals during the Christmas season, a narrative of unease was evident among many people with regard to communal activities.
In an attempt to satisfy the growing list of regulations, some churches opted to implement at least one Mass for vaccinated parishioners. Anecdotal reports from some parishes with Masses for vaccinated people indicated noticeable drops in attendance, with at least one parish reducing the number of vax-only Masses offered. Others however now have more Masses for the vaccinated than for all parishioners regardless of inoculation status.
Meanwhile, the Northern Health Authority has had churches in relative lockdown since Nov. 30, when it announced worship services could only take place virtually or with a drive-in model. In December it eased the restrictions to allow in-person worship services only for the vaccinated.
On Jan. 4, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms issued a scathing statement over increased restrictions on churches in Canada, saying the Northern Health edict means “in two-thirds of the province, no unvaccinated person over 11 may go to church this Christmas.
Significantly, nowhere in its public health order does Northern Health provide evidence that religious worship is a peculiar public health threat. That’s because it isn’t. The only COVID outbreaks or exposures listed in Northern Health’s December report, are at remote industrial locations and in hospitals and long-term care providers.”
In Ontario, Pembroke Bishop Guy Desrocher, CSSR, issued a letter criticizing restrictions by the Quebec government limiting church attendance to the vaccinated.
“I seriously wonder whether the line between what the State can and cannot dictate to the various religious communities has been crossed with this obligation to present vaccination passports at the entrance to our churches,” he wrote in the Dec. 20 letter.
