Abstract
Despite the critical importance of financial and other temporal resources to the vitality of religious congregations, little is known about the congregation characteristics that are related to giving. Catholic giving to the parish is related to household income and Mass attendance. In this paper, the authors go beyond these findings and investigate other Catholic parish determinants of average per household giving in the parishes of one diocese in the U.S. This study employs a large sample (264 parishes incorporating survey responses by nearly 27,000 parishioners) to study religious giving and incorporates some parish characteristics and parishioner attitude variables not included in previous studies. In addition to the expected findings that parish average median household income and the average Sunday Mass attendance were positively associated with average household giving, this study offers qualified support for the life-cycle explanation of low giving among younger households. Also, parishioners' perceptions of whether the parish is welcoming, has sufficient resources, helps others in need or has a worship life that assists the respondent were found to be significant.
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