Fliers, fish fries help St. Louis parish double Mass attendance

Published: 2004-05-25

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- It may have been the billboards. Or the yard signs. Perhaps the fliers delivered door to door. Since August, Mass attendance at Holy Family Parish in South St. Louis has grown from an average of 225 to about 450 now. At a recent 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass there weren't enough parish bulletins for the number of people in attendance. "A real treat is that we're all working together," said Alice Nicolas, who co-chairs the parish development committee with Pete Mutter. The committee has been at the forefront of an effort by active parishioners to welcome neighbors to their church. The billboards are a "dynamic endeavor," Mutter told the St. Louis Review, St. Louis archdiocesan newspaper. "Hopefully, it will get the school enrollment up and show the neighborhood what we have to offer." Father Rickey J. Valleroy, pastor, formed a development committee which sponsored a raffle that raised $17,000. The new pastor asked the committee to devise a way to further develop the parish and help evangelize the neighborhood. "It's amazing to see what this board has done since its incorporation of only a few months," he said. The parish also has used fish fries to attract people to a faith founded by a fisher of men.

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