The faithful participate in the Good Friday liturgy at St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro on April 18, 2025. ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD | WKC
Ongoing reasons for hope: Mass attendance keeps growing
BY DCN. KEN BENNETT, OFFICE OF WORSHIP
The theme for the Jubilee Year 2025 is “Pilgrims of Hope.” As we near the end of this Jubilee Year, Mass attendance across our diocese in 2025 has risen above 50% for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall 2025 diocesan Mass count shows that 51.32% of parishioners attended Mass during this period, a 2.53% increase from 2024. In comparison, in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, Mass attendance was 27.72%, and in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, it was 51.59%.
It is worth noting that these figures do not include those who attend Mass at Catholic institutions like Brescia University or St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at Western Kentucky University. They also do not account for individuals who attend Mass at nursing homes or the religious communities of the Fathers of Mercy, the Ursuline Sisters at Mount St. Joseph, the Carmelite Sisters, or the Passionist monastery in Whitesville. Many inmates attend Mass at Eddyville State Penitentiary, Green River Correctional Facility, and several county jails across our diocese. Additionally, some people, due to illness or age, receive the Eucharist at home.
We are encouraged by good news and signs of hope, reflected in increased Mass attendance and the many others who attend Mass in places where they are not counted. Equally important, our hope grows from knowing that the sick and imprisoned are being ministered to through the Eucharist, and that the Body of Christ across western Kentucky is living the Gospel.
As we conclude this year as “Pilgrims of Hope,” we step into a new year full of hope and trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to guide us and strengthen our faith.
Dcn. Ken Bennett is the co-coordinator of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Owensboro. Contact him at [email protected].
Click here to view the 2025 Mass count for the Diocese of Owensboro.
Originally printed in the November 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
