Thomas P. S1veetser, S..f.
Parish Accountability: Where the People are at Do we know our parishirmers' attitudes towards !itwrgical renewal, parish activities, moral and social issues? The author suggests a more effective way of listening to our people. Do the parish staff-priests, coordinators, teachers---know how their people feel about the Church and about their parish in particular? Do they have a grasp of how the people feel toward changes in the Church, toward liturgies, or parish activities? Most parish staffs say they do; that is their job, to find out what their people want and need and to try to meet those needs. Their role in the parish is to be accountable to their people. But what about the people that never let the staff know how they feel about what is going on in the Church? These are the people who come to Mass regularly but never take part in any other Church functions or volunteer any information about their own feelings and attitudes on how the parish is to be run. Can the pat•ish priests and coordinators be so sure they know how these people feel? An attempt was made to uncover these attitudes and feelings in a study of suburban parishes near Chicago. The parishes were selected to give a representative cross section of Catholic¡ attitudes and backgrounds, and included all ages and socioeconomic status groupings. The study began by surveying the 115