Sharp decline in British Mass attendance

Jul. 06 (CWNews.com) - Mass attendance in Great Britain has declined by 40% in the past generation, over a period when the Catholic population grew by 6%, according to a new study.

Anthony Spence of the Pastoral Research Centre found that the number of baptisms was down by 50%, church marriages by 60%, and confirmations also by 60%, reports Ruth Gledhill of the London Times Spencer's research covered the years 1963- 1991, but as Gledhill observes, "more recent figures, from 2004, indicate little improvement. In 2004, the Times article reports, Mass attendance in England and Wales reached a total of 960,000-- down from 1.3 million in 1991.