Welcome the parishioner next to you at Easter, even if they weren’t there last week.

That is Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s message in “Why The Pews Are Packed at Easter,” an opinion piece written for The Wall Street Journal (may require a subscription), published Friday, March 29, 2024.

Lamenting the declining number of Americans who do not identify with a particular faith, he noted that many still attend Masses and services on Christmas and Easter.

“While some of my fellow pastors might wonder out loud where these people are the other 50 Sundays of the year, or refer with mild irritation to the ‘birth-and-resurrection club,’ I am always heartened to see them,” he wrote.

By returning to Mass, “wandering brothers and sisters” can reconnect to God’s family and the sense of community that the Church can provide. “As in a gathering of kin, congregating with one’s spiritual family—people with whom one has a deep instant connection—is liberating and fulfilling,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

“So, how to win them back? We might begin by embracing the crowds this Easter and not rolling our eyes because some of them haven’t been seen since last year. These wandering brothers and sisters may not know it, but they’ve come out of a sense that this is the day on which the Son of God broke the power of death,” he wrote.

Read the full article here (may require a subscription).