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| "Let me see, that's the fifteenth person today making it, ermm, umm, a 65% increase over last Saturday's stats." |
Madeleine Teahan of The Catholic Herald has reported on an apparent 65% increase in the number of Catholics receiving the sacrament in our Cathedrals in England and Wales. You may read it HERE.
Some, even, are attributing this phenomenon to the coming of Pope Benedict's successor, Pope Francis.
Well, I genuinely would not like to pour cold water on this report especially, as an increase was verified by Fr Tim Finigan at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen.
But, I have to take issue with the research processes as carried out by the Bishop's Conference of England and Wales.
It seems that they carried out this exercise by email and phone.
Well, that's OK but you do need to have a sound understanding of research methodology before you set off down this path.
Put crudely, you need to know how to frame your question; you see, there is a desire in human nature, to give a response that is pleasing to the questioner.
Therefore, using a commercial example, you might pose the question: "Have you seen an increase in the sale of widgets since we launched our television advertising campaign?"
This will undoubtedly produce a "yes" response, or, at least, a strong bias in that direction.
So, if the Bishops' man or woman phrased the question linking it to the advent of Pope Francis, I am not exactly saying "Phew! Blow me down! That is amazingly good news"
Furthermore, I am rather sceptical about forming a quantitative research conclusion from an exercise that, by its nature, is informal.
Have priests in Cathedrals been keeping a tally over the past few years, as to how many attendees there have been at the 4pm Confessions session?
I very much doubt it and, unless they have done this, it is impossible to arrive at an accurate result figure.
Fr Tim's response, however, falls into the qualitative category and is perfectly good and fine. He has noticed an increase in young adults (especially) attending Confession and that is excellent news and accurate research on a quality rather than quantity basis.
So the report from the Bishops must be viewed with some reserve.
As a learned professor friend of mine said to me yesterday: "Of course, if you start from a base of zero then just five confessions is going to look like a bxxxxy good result!"
I think we have to thank +Conry for his inspiring example.
ReplyDeleteBruvver Eccles - +Conry's example is a lesson for us all.
ReplyDeleteIt's anecdotal, but I always used to try to schedule my days in London so that I could get to the Cathedral for about 11.15, to be near the front of the queue for confession to be able to get to a 12.30 lunch meeting. I've now had to make that 1.00 lunches to be sure. On the Thursday before Whit Sunday I arrived at 11.40, went through the 12.30 Mass in the queue only to get out of the box as the 1.05 Mass was starting.
ReplyDeleteAs I say, this is anecdotal rather than scientific, but nevertheless I could see MT's report being at least indicative of a shift.
Ttony, that is indeed good news but, with my sceptical marketing hat on I would just wish to make sure that the number of active confessionals has not decreased in that period making a longer wait inevitable. If I was a real pedant I would make a calculation based on the difference in waiting times and probably come up with a figure of 50% longer waiting time (allowing 15 minutes to get to your meeting) and draw the conclusion that confession numbers had increased by the same amount. But then, I'm not a pedant :) It would still be good news, though.
ReplyDeleteAmongst the the things The new Holy Father HAS said is "go to confession"; howsoever misreported and underreported and put out of context, if reported at all , it 's hard to twist or take in any other way.
ReplyDeleteIt easily could be true.
I would worry about any "Instalado-ness"saying things are a touch better, foot off the accelerator, trim the sails, because that's what id want to .(anything for a quiet life)
God send more Padre Pios with 14 hour stints in the confessional, and the queues for confession I remember, come that about how it may from our cerebral rationalistic point of view.
I think that there have always been long queues at the Cathedral, I don't think it is very typical of Catholic life in England.
ReplyDelete