Parishes count the collection and count the number of people registered in the Parish as well as the Sunday Mass attendance and the Baptisms, Confirmations, First Communions, Marriages, etc. to get a sense of the size and life of the Parish. Fine. These are good social indicators but do not indicate Catholic fidelity or interior life at all! We could call them the tallies of spiritual worldliness.
The real indicators of living Catholicism and the true life of the Parish are found in the concrete manifestations of Catholic zeal: worthily frequenting the Sacraments and fostering holy family life.
Here are three sure manifestations of the spiritual health of a Parish, therefore.
1. Number (percentage) of people at daily Mass.
2. Number (percentage) of people at Confession per week.
3. Number (percentage) of large families (with more than 4 children).
These are the indicators bishops and pastors should be counting. And the shepherds with the best numbers in these areas should be the clerics that are promoted and presented as model and dynamic men of God. True shepherds of souls raising up saints!
Christ Himself in today's Gospel (Tuesday of 7th week of Ordinary Time) answering the apostolic rivalry for greatness, placed a child in the midst of the Apostles, put His arms around him and said to them "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me." Mark 9:30-37
Receive the child, receive Jesus! That is true greatness. That is being with God! There are many practical Catholic implications here! with the three above at the top of the list.
If you want one more I would add one for Our Lady.
4. Number (percentage) of parishioners devoted to the daily recitation of the Most Holy Rosary.
