Project Description
The Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics may be able to improve the homiletic skills of Catholic priests by increasing motivation to give better, more connective homilies.
Intent / Scope
The initial scope of this project will focus on providing incentives to amplify motivation among Catholic priests to improve their homiletic skills. Over time, the intent of this project is to work towards solving the Catholic Church’s problem of dwindling attendance numbers at Mass by enhancing the homiletic skills of priests, for we hope that this improvement will lead to increased attendance in Mass, enlarged engagement in the sacraments, and widespread adherence to the teachings of the Church as professed in the homilies.
Exploration Questions
This project will inform key strategic questions including:
- How can the Marten program improve the homiletic skills of Catholic priests? How can the program work to provide incentives to motivate the priests to improve the homilies?
- How can the Marten program make Catholic Masses more appealing to the casual Mass-goer, increasing attendance in Sunday services?
- Are there other programs that the Marten program can learn from? If so, how can we incorporate successful attributes of these others programs into the Marten program and extend its outreach?
Target Users
The project will primarily focus on Catholic priests, but the indirect target audience will ultimately be the Catholics who are not avid Mass-goers, for we hope to increase attendance among this group by the enhanced homiletic and connecting abilities of the priests.
Research Plan
- Interview prominent Catholic priests (both at Notre Dame and elsewhere in the country), inquiring about their sources of motivation, tactics they learned in their studies of homiletics, and their opinions on how the problem could be addressed.
- Interview ministers outside of the Catholic Church about their opinions on how to motivate Catholic priests.
- Interview casual Mass-goers on what they look for in attending Mass, what aspects of the service sway their decision of whether they go or not, and what they wish they heard from priests in their homilies.
- Interview weekly (or daily) Mass-goers on what keeps them coming back to Mass and their opinions on how priests could improve their homilies.
Expected Outcomes
- Increased motivation and homiletic skills of the Catholic priests in the program.
- Increased enjoyment of preaching of the Catholic priests in the program.
- Increased attendance in Mass by casual Mass-goers, improving the community and individual faith lives of those impacted by the priests in the program.
Success Metrics
- Did we discover a compelling reason for Catholic priests to improve their homiletic skills?
- Did we unveil ways to motivate Catholic priests to improve their preaching abilities?
- Did we make the Mass more appealing to both avid Mass-goers and casual Mass-goers, increasing attendance in the latter?
Project Planning
A team made up of myself and the Notre Dame Design for America club will conduct the “exploration” and “research plan” phases over the course of a semester.