DETROIT (AP) - Catholics trying to support Detroit's oldest churches are encouraging people to fill the empty pews.
The latest effort comes Sunday at the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Charles Borromeo church on Detroit's east side. The group has a Facebook page called the Detroit Catholic Mass Mob.
The goal is to support Roman Catholic churches that still are open in Detroit but don't get many people. AnnaMarie Barnes tells the Detroit Free Press that nothing in the suburbs compares to the architecture of churches built for immigrants in the early 1900s.
The Mass Mob visited St. Hyacinth church in April and boosted Mass attendance that day by 100 - and helped the collection plate, too. Parish secretary Darlene Zabrzenski says the pastor was delighted and didn't want to end Mass.
