Playing at St Francis Hall to a sold-out crowd of more than 150 people, the band of Dominican friars played various songs from all four of their albums, including their latest album, which debuted at No 2 on the Billboard bluegrass charts after its July 26 release.

"Our music is influenced by the bluegrass genre, but it's become our own thing because we're all Dominicans," shared Father Peter Gautsch, who plays the guitar. "Bluegrass has a tradition of the Gospel, but we bring a Catholic twist to it."

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At the other end of the spectrum are Catholic churches, which have a deep eucharistic tradition and the worst preaching and music in the country.

At least, this is the view of Catholics themselves, according to the Pew Research Center.

Pew did not intentionally plan to make this assessment.

It came out of a study, conducted in November and released early this month, of satisfaction with online and in-person church attendance.

What they found was that Protestants are much more satisfied with their preaching and music than are Catholics.

When U.S. adults were asked how satisfied they were with the sermons they heard online or in person, 82% of Protestants who regularly attended services in person said they were "extremely or very satisfied" with the sermons they hear.

For Protestants who regularly watched services on TV or online, 76% were extremely or very satisfied with the sermons.

On the other hand, only 61% of Catholics who regularly attend church in person said they were extremely or very satisfied, a difference of 21 points from Protestants.

Similarly, of those Catholics who regularly watch services on TV or online, 57% were extremely or very satisfied, a difference of 19 points.

For Catholics, the heart of the Sunday service has traditionally been the Eucharist, not the Word.

The Second Vatican Council attempted to revive Catholic interest in Scripture, but with limited success. Only 36% of Catholics read the Scripture once a month or more, as compared with 75% of evangelical Protestants, according to Pew.

After Vatican II, the Sunday lectionary was revised so that, in its three-year cycle, Catholics are now exposed to more Scripture than in the past. But you must attend church on Sunday to hear the Scripture, and church attendance has been declining for decades. And while Catholic Scripture scholarship is among the best in the world, Catholic homilies do not always reflect this scholarship.

Likewise, Catholic churches are failing when it comes to music.

Among Protestants, 75% of those who regularly attend services in person and 57% of those who regularly watch on TV or online are extremely or very satisfied with the music.

For Catholics, the equivalent numbers are 61% and 50%.

Not only do Catholics do worse than Protestants on preaching and music, they also feel less connected to their fellow congregants.

Seventy-one percent of Protestants who regularly attend religious services in person report feeling a great deal or quite a bit of connection with others attending in person. Only 50% of Catholics report the same.

Some might argue that the satisfaction rates for Catholics are not as bad as I portray them.

A majority of Catholics are extremely or very satisfied with the preaching and music. Yet when compared with Protestants, Catholics are much less satisfied in their church services than are our Protestant brothers and sisters.

The Catholic Church is in trouble. About 1 out of 3 people raised Catholic have left the Catholic Church, according to a study done by the Pew Research Center in 2011.

About half of them become Protestants and half become unchurched.

These Pew surveys raise more questions than answers.

• Could some of the former Catholics be attracted by better preaching and music in Protestant churches?
• Are Catholic services simply too boring?
• Why are Catholics less connected to their congregation?
• Can Catholic priests learn from Protestant ministers how to be better preachers?
• How can Catholic seminaries do a better job of teaching future priests how to preach?
• What can be done to improve the preaching of those already ordained?
• And how should Catholics improve church music?
• Are Catholic parishes willing to spend more on professional musicians in order to get better music?

The U.S. Catholic bishops are sponsoring a Eucharistic Revival nationally and in their dioceses. Can they deal with any of these issues?

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

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The tour began on Monday 2 July in Queenstown.

Children from St Joseph's School Queenstown sang, listened and learned the actions for Chris' music.

His sense of fun and real joy was contagious and all were smiles during his concert.

Later that afternoon, Catholic school teachers from all over Central Otago gathered to hear Chris use his music to teach about the liturgy of the mass.

The tour then travelled along the Ida Valley to Ranfurly for a school concert.

The children there knew Chris's music and sang along beautifully.

Then it was on to Oamaru for another concert and a parish teacher session in the late afternoon.

On Wednesday night Chris was in Dunedin where parish musicians had gathered at Holy Name.

He spoke about the fact that people bring their own lived experience of the liturgy to the parish music ministry.

Amy Armstrong, the Dunedin Diocese's pastoral leader, said it was really refreshing to hear someone who is fully immersed in the kiwi context speaking to them.

The following afternoon was spent in the St Peter Chanel Church in Green Island.

Chris shared his Marist story, as well as his music and wisdom on the liturgy, with the teachers who had gathered from Dunedin and the surrounding districts.

In Balclutha, families seemed to come from everywhere for the school concert.

Cousins of all ages appeared and enjoyed with the children and teachers at St Joseph's school.

Teachers travelled to Invercargill from Winton, Bluff and Gore to join the local teachers at St Patrick's Church.

Chris's input was enhanced by recent video clips about the mass created by Bishop Peter Cullinane for the Christchurch Diocese.

He finished his marathon tour in Gore where he gave a concert at St. Mary's in the morning and, in the evening, presented a session at Blessed Sacrament Church for parish musicians.

"It was a nice follow-up to his tour 2016 tour of the Dunedin Diocese where he taught us all his Hopetoun Mass, which is being sung in many parishes," said Armstrong.

"Touring and teaching in all parts of our Diocese has brought a liturgical cohesiveness which helps us feel more as one.

We also like to claim Fr Chris as one of our own as he has some strong roots in the Balclutha/Tuapeka Mouth areas of Otago," she said.

"We all felt utterly blessed by Fr Chris Skinner's prayerful spirit, which came through each concert and workshop he offered to us here in the Dunedin Diocese."

Read the press realise

Source

• Press release: Supplied: Katrina van de Water, Catholic Education Office Advisor and Amy Armstrong, Pastoral Leader
• Image Supplied

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