This is a busy and sacred time of year on many religious calendars.
Important observations are being made for Lent, Ramadan, and Passover, which are either taking place right now or coming up soon.
For the faithful, religion is a cornerstone of their life, but their numbers are dwindling. Many houses of worship are seeing attendance drop, sometimes dramatically.
In Westwood, one man told Boston 25 News, “I think a lot of people have decided to seek whatever it is they want, whether it’s faith or spiritualism.”
A woman remarked, “People are too involved with their phone, the tv, the lifestyle is different.”
According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, 26% of Massachusetts residents said their religion is very important to their life today.
50% said it isn’t at all.
Compare that to 2007 when the numbers were just about flipped. At that time, 40% said religion was very important and 24% said it wasn’t at all.
A man told us, “I don’t live my life in any religious way, shape, or form, but I don’t know anyone who does.”
Another woman added, “I don’t think that it’s necessarily becoming less of a factor, maybe people don’t like to talk about it as much.”
Images of empty pews tell a story that concerns Ernest Collamati, Ph.D., a professor of theology at Regis College in Weston.
“My greatest concern is as theologian concerned about family life and passing on our traditions, is our young people need moorings.”
But in 2024, just 14% said they regularly attend a religious service, while 63% said they did not.
Again, that’s way down from 2007 when about a third said the were regulars and another third said they were not.
“This commitment of individuals to the larger communal experience has been on the decline in America,” explained Collamati. “Take a look at politics. How many local political structures are begging for candidates to step forward?”
People stepping back from religion is particularly prevalent around here.
“New England, according to Pew Research, has the lowest rate of people identifying as very religious. For what it’s worth, our Commonwealth is tied for the lowest of all with New Hampshire.”
Locally, the largest decline between 2007-2024 was among Catholics which was down 14%.
Protestants saw a decline of 7%.
One woman said, “I’m a Catholic and I was raised Catholic, but I became very concerned about the Catholic church with all the sexual abuse.”
Collamati says the poll sends a clear message to all faith leaders.
“If you simply do exactly what you were doing in 1950, in a radically changed scenario, it does not auger well at all for the future.”
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