Singapore Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan flags decline in Mass attendance, higher divorce rate among Catholics

The 10-year Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan released by the Singapore Archdiocese recently has highlighted several areas of concern which it hopes to address over the years. These include a large decline in Mass attendance by both youth and adults, and the higher rate of divorce among Catholics compared to those of other religions.

The pastoral plan, titled “Communion in Mission”, sets out the Archdiocese’s goals and priorities for the next decade, and was released on the archdiocesan website on Sept 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to the Archdiocese, the plan was the result of a 2021-2025 synodal journey developed through extensive consultations with more than 1,000 clergy, Religious, laity, Church organisations, Catholic schools and parishes.

The plan revealed that as of 2020, there were close to 395,000 Catholics in Singapore, constituting 6 percent of Singapore’s resident population. Although this marked a growth of 5.8 percent in the Catholic population from 2010 to 2020, it was accompanied by a significant proportion of self-reported Catholics who do not attend Mass.

The Catholic Conversation Research Report, a major study conducted in 2016 on the Catholic community, highlighted that 64.2 percent of Catholics in the city-state were not accounted for, meaning that they did not come to Church or participate in parish surveys.

A 2023 study of non-practising Catholics also revealed that 41 percent of them have not attended Mass for more than 10 years.  

The pastoral plan noted that in 2020, there was an increase in Singapore residents aged 15-29 years reporting no religious affiliation. During this period, there was also a decrease in Catholic youth in this age group.

On the other hand, the non-resident population in Singapore saw significant growth from 2021-2023, with the number of foreign Catholics growing as well. These now make up about 30-36 percent of the total Catholic population.

The proportion of divorced or separated Catholics was also a matter of concern. The plan reported that in 2020, this stood at 4.69 percent, higher than in most other religions in Singapore.

In a pastoral message, Cardinal William Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, said he hopes the plan “will provide us with a common language and tools to make meaning of the situations we face”, that it will serve “as a rallying call for unity across the Church” and that it will “guide us towards fullness of life in Jesus Christ”.

The plan describes five pastoral priorities which provide a framework for pastoral action across all levels of the Church. These are:

• Lifelong formation of clergy and laity for evangelisation and mission
• Building communities of faith in and across parishes for different groups
• Enhancing differentiated co-responsibility of clergy and laity
• Building unity in diversity across all levels
• Embracing synodality as a way of being Church

The plan noted that the next two to three years will be focused on implementing the first two priorities. An assembly is also scheduled to be held in two years’ time, during which the Archdiocesan Curia will provide an update on the progress of this implementation.

In addition, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council will work with the Curia to hold a conference in alternate years for the Curia, the parishes and other Church entities to share developments.

The summary and full versions of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan can be accessed at catholic.sg/pastoralplan2025

(Christopher Khoo is a Singapore-based freelance journalist and educator.)