Sep 16, 2026

Greetings,

We have just completed our “Status Animarum” for the parish. This “State of the Souls” report, established universally by Pope Paul V in 1614, lists the particulars about a parish, but is also used by dioceses as a basis for their statistical planning. You may have seen a little more detailed article concerning our report in the Angelus Letter, but there are a couple additional points in the census portion which you will find below.

Here are some interesting numbers. We broke an almost two-decade streak of growing the number of households in our parish. Every year I say, “I can’t think from where all these households keep coming and one year, there will have to be a peak.” I guess we hit that last year, as we are down six households from last year.

That being said, we are up 69 parishioners from last year! That might be explained by a couple of factors. We could have had a few single-person households either move or pass away. At the other end, we may have added a number of households of families, or more babies were born. In any event, the parish grew again last year by numbers of persons who are registered.

That it may be due to young families is evidenced by the joyful sound of babies, particularly at the 9am Sunday Mass. It may also explain why the median age of a St. Sebastianite dipped below forty. You heads of households are looking pretty good. Your average age is fifty-seven. Our average household size is 2.8.

1,896 of us have belonged to the parish for fourteen years or fewer. Twenty-eight of you have belonged for more than fifty years! What a treasure you are! I’ve been at St. Sebastian for nigh on eighteen years, along with seventy others of you. (This is taking into consideration only those with known join dates.)

As an interesting side note, the average age of a registered Catholic parishioner in the United States is forty-five. As Bishop Malesic reported in a talk earlier in the year, of the 1,029 people who became Catholic in the Diocese of Cleveland last year, the majority were in their 20s and 30s. Nationally, most (but not all) of those becoming Catholic do so before they turn 30.

There are more statistics coming your way. Upcoming are our October Counts and our annual State of the Parish Report. For more on the Status Animarum, check out the last Angelus Letter. Not receiving the Angelus Letter? Contact Angela in the Parish Office at (330) 836-2233 to make sure that you are registered for the parish and that we have your email address.

IN OTHER NEWS:

CALLED TO FLOURISH: This weekend we officially kick off the Called to Flourish: Our Church for the Future campaign. Our parish’s participation will help support Catholic ministries across the Diocese of Cleveland and help us reach the rest of our goal needed to build the new Helen Hamlin Marshall Activity Center. More information will be coming either via the mail or our team of volunteers. Please see page 8 of the bulletin for more information on the campaign, along with the campaign prayer. I invite you to pray for the success of the campaign both at your parish and throughout the Diocese.

THEOLOGY ON THE ROCKS: You are invited to join me for a presentation on Relics this coming Monday night, September 21, at which I will be the speaker. See page 9 in the bulletin for details.

CONCERT: There is an organ concert coming up at St. Sebastian Sunday, October 4 at 4pm in the church! I’ve been waiting for this year’s season to begin! I hope to see you there. The concert is free and open to the public.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck