Catholic churches rarely so empty

By CHRISTINE BOYD, The Globe and Mail
Monday, July 29, 2002

The 10:30 a.m. mass at the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Etobicoke is usually its busiest -- it attracts so many people that police routinely show up to direct traffic. Yesterday only about 75 people showed up, compared with the usual 800, church spokeswoman Ginette McCallen said. "It was very quiet, but very reverent," she said.

Among the missing parishioners was a group that met at 5:30 a.m. to head to the World Youth Day site. Others, mostly young people, stayed at Downsview Park overnight after Saturday's evening vigil.

Even as the morning mass took place, some of the 400 out-of-town pilgrims who had been staying at homes or schools in the parish began to trickle back, bedraggled after camping out in the rain.

The empty pews weren't confined to Etobicoke.

The Epiphany of Our Lord in Scarborough cancelled the four masses usually held on Sunday mornings, opting to hold two in the evening instead.

Downtown, at St. Michael's Cathedral, only about 60 per cent of the normal crowd showed up for the 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. masses, a spokesman said.

Suzanne Scorsone, a communications officer for the archdiocese, said the unusually low turnouts were a good thing, signalling that many people seized the rare opportunity of hearing from their spiritual leader in person.

"It was a lot smaller -- but every parish in the diocese encouraged young people to go to Downsview," she said.