a brief history and meddlesome kids

There have been several variations on the theme. Some of the Mass Mobs are organic and are led by fully grown 'meddlesome kids', such as the first Mass Mob and us.  A number are more clerical in character. Detroit has full archdiocesan approval, help, and participation, and the Knights of Columbus (who also organise South Bend's). Some are an addition to youth ministry. Other cities have a seminarian, deacon, priest, or other diocesan employee as organiser.

The model was developed in Buffalo using 'social media' to stage a mass gathering at a Mass. But really, the success was getting broadcast media to report that 'social media' was the engine. This proved itself in Cleveland's first mobbing. Buffalo's mob committee had friends in the press after years of municipal activism. Some have used very little promotion, and have had modest results follow. Facebook is the most popular vehicle of announcement, yet in some cases it is hard to find them there.

This movement spread in two mini waves. The first after the story became national through an Associated Press article describing Buffalo's second mob. The other wave was after a New York Times article describing a few of the mobs, with a dateline of Cleveland. "Mass mobs seek to draw large crowds to a single church in a demonstration of support for Catholicism and its most beautiful — and often needy — churches." Certainly this describes the majority of the mobbings, but some have different rationales and visitations. Three locals chose their cathedral church, the seat of the bishop, the one church which in their local is immune from certain parochial problems; one local being where the bishop has been convicted of criminal behaviour. That sends a message too.

Enthusiasm, organisation, and style vary from local to local. Some did little to nothing in going forward, some are more recently declared have only a static facebook page. A few called a 'mob' for their parish, and that was the totality, and were never meant to be a local mob.

Rochester's two founders attended Buffalo's Mass Mob II and have been the only local to go beyond a Catholic tour. They very early explored the idea whether this event of  ecclesial enthusiasm could be exported ecumenically*. Their first mobbing was at an Unitarian-Universalist church. They received some local media interest, and held a second mobbing at a Catholic church. Interesting, but disappointed in attendance and the degree of effort exerted; they retired. The one fellow attended Cleveland's second mobbing. He saw at least four mobs in three cities. I have no second example of this.

Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit have beautiful ethnic parishes and churches to mob. Detroit has huge churches. Some of the other cities have mobbed non-architectural splendors, and have made no mention of national character of congregations. In those mentioned and some other locals, Polish parishes were mobbed. Here in Cleveland, we mobbed ten churches and four were Polish parishes, and the attendance ranked 1,2,4, and 5.

Both Buffalo and Cleveland had recently suffered from parish closings, Buffalo belatedly received diocesan acceptance of the mob. Now, New York City proper is in two dioceses. Currently, the archdiocese of New York (has 3 of 5 boroughs) is reducing parishes. New York City has had a popular vote for the four mobbings they have had. The last one was at a parish that is gallantly fighting to survive forced closure. So a focus of some of the mobs is not just to attract attention, not novel evangelisation, but to celebrate the continuance of a church and parish against arbitrary misfortune.

Cleveland has not had a mob since All Souls Day, and still leads in number. Throughout the upcoming year Cleveland and Detroit will continue at the top, with Buffalo, and Pittsburgh right behind. Detroit's mob came together from separate nuclei, and since has had outstanding success. Now a member of their mob has started a second mob. Fort Wayne and South Bend share the same bishop.

Cleveland is the only mass mob to mob on a weekday. The Feast of the Assumption was on Friday, and we had a great turn out at St. Mary Bedford. Cleveland has had the only mobbing of an Eastern-rite church, Holy Ghost; and this is the the church that the New York Times correspondent came to, and wrote about. Earlier the paper had sent a writer and photographer to St. Michael's.

Cleveland had five churches mobbed that were once closed. Only Detroit went to another formerly closed church, St. Albertus, and it is outside diocesan management. That and other Detroit mobbings had Masses said by bishops.

Other odd notes: Covington announced a mob and didn't have one in the first year, and came back as Greater Cincinnati. Saint Louis has six mobbings scheduled, two in 2016, and has not have one completed. Their first mass will have their bishop presiding. Most locals do not announce, or even know where they will mob beyond the next one. Detroit after they merged had the year planned out, and their two mobs now both have this year planned and public. Pittsburgh had future ones announced, and had nearer in time announced later. Philadelphia deferred to their archdiocese to such a degree that an impression was given that mass mobs were an episcopal creation. Philly had two mobbings and stopped without a note. Greater New Orleans was the first to go to a suburban church, and had one more mobbing, and also stopped noting. Wilmington was dormant, and recently held their first mobbing with very little notice. One mob, Rural Davenport, is planning for rural churches. Memphis has a vote, and announces some four days before the mobbing.
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*The ideas of community in a sacred space and local pilgrimage makes sense within Catholicism, i can not see other groups in the United States being interested participants.

mass mob graphics and St. Mary's

'ell-o, 'ell-o, or woof, woof,

Clicking on Fido, to your right, will get you to a more frequent site of postings, with all sorts of ancillary notices, and pictures. Facebook has problems, and annoyances; but it  is the social media organ of choice for most of the mass mobs. Ours is a fully public page, meaning you do not have to log in or sign up. Just keep clicking and scrolling. We have way too many postings for you to get through. Here on this page, there is not much more than a post a month. In control of format and layout, this page is superior, but less popular. This is the official page, and most of the posts announce the next mobbing. The next mobbing is 22 March at Saint Mary Collinwood 10 a.m.   We expect to be mobbing the fourth Sunday of the month during 2015. That would be the 22nd through the 28th. A parish may choose the Saturday vigil. Last year Cleveland mobbed ten churches, only one chose the Saturday option. The first four, at least, have decided for Sunday.

Cleveland Mass Mob XI — Saint Mary Collinwood

 

Cleveland Mass Mob  XI

Saint Mary of the Assumption (Collinwood)

10 a.m. Sunday 22 March 2015

15519 Holmes 

 

The first Cleveland Mass Mob of the new year will be south of the railroad tracks in the northeastern part of Cleveland, Collinwood. Collinwood, before 1910, was a separate municipality. Collinwood largely exists because Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway needed a flat spot between Toledo and Buffalo. Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the Lake Shore line in 1877, and it became part of New York Central. Collinwood Village in Euclid Township expanded from the railyard. To-day, the locomotive turntable and dormitories are gone, one can still see a coal tipple at the Saranac yard.

The first Catholic church in Collinwood was St. Joseph, which started as a mission from Saint Paul Euclid (suppressed in 2009). Originally, St. Joseph was on Aspinwall (near Saranac), later on St. Clair (1994 merged into St. Aloysius). Saint Mary was the first nationality church in Collinwood. Saint Mary is a Slovene parish, Marija Venobovzeta (Mary of the Assumption). 

 

Cleveland was the capital of the diaspora of more than one nation. Outside of their respective homelands (the old country), Cleveland was the largest Slovene, and the largest Magyar/Hungarian city in the world. Cleveland (the new country—America) had heavy immigration from east and central Europe before the First World War, and after the Second. Those that came early went to escape poverty, and many just changed the locale; those that came after had often just escaped death. Those generations are largely gone. Those that have recently come, have not generally had those hardships and many live in suburban Lake County, and not in easy walking distance.

1906 cornerstone

The first building was from 1906, and its cornerstone is by the Marian altar, often with flowers. The present church is from 1957 during the peak of the second migration. Now, Saint Mary's was built just before the Second Vatican Council, and was a modern church in Catholic style; but that style is not current fashion, and most whom prefer the ancient style of ecclesial design are pleased enough with Saint Mary's.

Cleveland Mass Mob X — Saint John Cantius

Cleveland Mass Mob  X

Saint John Cantius

11.30 a.m. All Souls, Sunday 2 November

906 College

The first Mass Mob was held in Buffalo's Saint Adalbert's Basilica* on All Souls 2013. In a salute to the Buffalo Idea, we believe All Souls Day is a grrreat day for a Mass Mob.

The parish began in 1898, the present church came 1924 with some art deco elements. It is another parish church built in a Polish cathedral style. There were many built in the United States, some are still in use [some sadly have been destroyed, or are listed for destruction (and some people are fighting to save them)]. Cleveland has a few of them, this is the third such we are mobbing. The area it is in is now called Tremont (after the very near public grade school), the Poles called the area 'Kantowo' after the parish. This area of Cleveland may be the most densely concentrated in churches of any neighborhood in the United States.

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*Basilica (correction, proofreading did not occur). Yes, this was the first Basilica in the United States. Basilica is a special honor and categorisation of a church building. The Buffalo Diocese has denied the status. The exalted status, means something to Rome, and therefore is taken away some authority from a local bishop's jurisdiction over that building, something that many bishops resist.

Cleveland Mass Mob IX — Saint Stanislaus

Cleveland Mass Mob  IX 

Saint Stanislaus

11.30 a.m. Sunday 5 October

3649 East 65th Street

mass mob 101

Q: Who is the Mob?
A: The People of God.

Q: Who is a member of the Mass Mob?
A: Anyone who attends the Mass Mob who would not have attended that Mass otherwise.

Q: Must mob members be Catholic?
A: No.

Q: Why do they mob?
A: To celebrate Mass, a celebration of Liturgy and Eucharist.

Q: What is their motivation?
A: They have a communal faith. When they gather, Jesus is in their midst.

Q: Where do they mob?
A: In a parish community of an historical, and beautiful church.

Q: When do they know to mob?
A: In Cleveland, from the announcement at the previous Mass Mob. In other places there has been voting in a selection process, or by announcements, over social media by mob organisers.

Q: Where did the Mass Mob begin?
A: Buffalo, New York.

Q: Where is the Mass Mob currently active?
A: Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, Pittsburgh.

Q: Why did the Mass Mob begin?
A: The faith and members of the faith have been discouraged, and beautiful places of their meeting have been less frequented, and have become endangered. The mob wants to enkindle enthusiasm in both the faith, and their places of community.

Q: What caused the discouragement?
A: Life is not a vacuum. Life is inter-related. There were factors from within, and from without.

Q: What were factors from within?
A: Scandals they were not prepared to deal with, and bad leadership.

Q: What were factors from without?
A: Those of the general society.