Quincy’s Catholic grade schools trying to entice families to attend Mass regularly — with added benefit of reduced tuition

QUINCY — The Quincy Deanery of the Diocese of Springfield implemented a plan earlier this month to entice families to return to the Catholic church and be active in their parishes.

Families who send their children to one of Quincy’s Catholic K-8 elementary schools — St. Peter, St. Francis, St. Anthony and Blessed Sacrament — have been asked for several years to sign a family school agreement that “commits themselves to the Catholic faith and involve themselves in the practice of that faith.” 

“We have found this signed agreement was one of many papers signed by (parents) without an impact on your life,” Msgr. Leo Enlow, pastor of St. Peter Parish, said in an April letter to St. Peter families with elementary school students. 

A change to that agreement goes into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

The agreement now calls for parents of students in the four elementary schools to be present at Mass on Saturday night or Sunday for at least 51 percent of the time. Families must return green school agreement Mass cards in the collection basket. Families submitted the cards for the first time during the July 6-7 weekend.

Non-participating families — non-Catholic families and Catholic families who don’t reach the 51 percent minimum for Mass attendance — will pay $4,850 for tuition for one child to attend one of the four Catholic grade schools. The tuition rate drops to $3,400 for Catholic families who reach the 51 percent threshold for Mass attendance.

The cost is $6,800 to educate a child in the four Quincy Catholic elementary schools. Christopher Gill, chief administrative leader for Quincy Catholic Elementary Schools, says no family pays that figure.

“(The parishes are) already covering $3,400 of that cost (to educate a child),” Gill said. “(The parishes are saying, ‘Yes, we will continue to do that because you’re fulfilling your end of the bargain. But if families say I don’t want to do that or I will not go to Mass or you can’t force me, then we’re going to say you need to pay the non-parishioner rate.’”

Families who attend Mass at one of the Catholic churches in the Quincy deanery — St. Thomas in Camp Point, St. Brigid in Liberty, St. Edward in Mendon, Holy Family in Mount Sterling, St. Mary in Pittsfield, St. Joseph in Quincy, St. Rose of Lima in Quincy or St. Mark in Winchester — or at the Quincy University chapel can drop their family agreement cards in the collection baskets at those locations. 

The cards are color-coded. If forgotten, each of the four parishes with a school will have the appropriate color-coded cards available in the narthex or entrance of the church.

“They’re like a business card. They put their name on it, and they just drop it in the collection basket,” Gill said. “It is not tied to any money. It’s not tied to their collection envelope or anything like that. We are just basically telling the families, ‘Hey, we need you to fulfill your end of the deal, and that’s by taking your children to Mass.’”

Tuition for children attending Quincy Notre Dame is unaffected by the family agreement Mass cards.

Gill said the nine Catholic grade schools in Springfield used a similar idea last year, and Mass attendance figures increased by at least 6.6 percent in seven schools and by double digits in five schools. Only two saw declines in Mass attendance.

Average Mass attendance for Springfield-area parishes

Mass attendance numbers from parishes in the Diocese of Springfield are determined by an average of all Masses on a weekend in October each year. Parishes with an asterisk offer a Catholic school.

“The Springfield area churches implemented this idea last year, and we reviewed what they did, how they did it and if it was successful,” Gill said. “They did see some success in it. We talked about it this year and we decided we’re going to do it too.”

Gill said “a handful of families” live in Missouri and send their kids to one of the Quincy Catholic grade schools. “We’re just going to work with those families. They won’t get penalized,” he said.

While the Springfield parishes saw a 10.1 percent increase in Mass attendance from 2022 to 2023, they have not returned to pre-covid numbers. Mass attendance has dropped 12.1 percent from 2019 to 2023 in Springfield. The pre-covid numbers are similar for Quincy parishes, which showed a 22.4 percent drop from 2019 to 2023.

Average Mass attendance for Quincy-area parishes

Gill said the point of the family agreement Mass cards is not to punish people but to entice them to be a part of their parish’s Catholic family. He did not have figures from Masses during the July 6-7 weekend, but he said he was told attendance was as high on a July weekend as parish officials have seen in many years.

“As you can imagine, July is typically not as full on Sundays,” Gill said. “A lot of people just don’t go because the kids aren’t in school yet, it’s summer break, it’s the heat of the summer. This (agreement) is about encouragement, like they need a little bump.

“We want (parishioners) to go to 100 percent of the Masses, but we had to put a line somewhere in the sand. We’re basically saying this is the very minimum that we will accept. We understand things come up. You’re sick, you can’t get to church, you’re out of town because of a sports event, your car broke down, whatever the reason. We’re not trying to be Mass police here.”