We are currently in the midst of taking a
new Parish Census.
If you are a member of St. Brigid's but
haven't filled in a new Census form
stop in at the office or
e-mail us here for more info.

Frequently asked questions...

Who is my information shared with?
No one outside the parish -- not the government, not the diocese. The census will allow us to share statistics with others, but not personal information.

Why are we doing a census?
Since 1984 the makeup of the parish has changed. Children grow up and some move away. Elderly relatives come to stay with us, family members die or move, People give birth to children and adopt children -- the changes in life are constant. And so a census is a “snapshot” of where we are now that will let us plan for the future. Are there lots of young children in our parish who will soon be coming to our school or religious education program? Do we know who all the homebound people are so we can reach out? There are many more questions answered through a census.

I’ve been a parishioner for many years. Don’t you know me by now?
Why are you asking me to do a census?
All parishioners are being asked to complete our new census so that they are part of our new “snapshot” of the parish. If “oldtimers” didn’t participate in the census, it would look like the parish is only made up of newcomers.

Do I have to live in the Westbury area to be considered a parishioner?
No, we accept people from all over. But we’ll only have a record of you as a parishioner if you complete the census.

Why is a new Census valiable to the parish?

The information gathered in a census is usually useful for planning purposes for about five years and since St. Brigid’s hasn’t done a Census since 1984, we have a lot of updating to do. Families change, people move into a parish, people move away. Most of the time we catch the changes that affect our mailing list since the Post Office corrects our mailings by returning undeliverable mail. But this kind of correction doesn’t let us know what happens inside of families. Information about families helps us to be a better church community.

Here’s an example -- each year we have a wonderful celebration for all married couples celebrating their 25th and 50th anniversaries. But we don’t have a record of the dates of marriage for most of our married parishioners (unless they were married at St. Brigid’s). So lots of couples are unintentionally excluded from receiving our invitation to our special celebration.

Another example -- there are homebound folks in our parish who don’t even know that they can receive a visit from someone from our parish. Our census will help us to know which families have a homebound member and we can reach out to them to let them know about our wonderful ministry to the homebound.

One concern when taking a new Census is that some folks who have lived here a long time might feel hurt that we’re asking them to re-submit their information. “After all these years, my parish doesn’t know me?”, they might think. Census takers have learned over the years that the most accurate way to update information is to start fresh, and not to incorporate old census data which often has errors. So when we ask “oldtimers” to fill in a Census, it’s to be sure that we don’t leave them out and that we have all the information correct. (If you hear anyone with this concern, we hope you’ll help explain.)

How will the Census be taken?

In today’s society it’s no longer possible to go door to door to ask if anyone at home is Catholic, so we’ll be doing the Census as people come to us.

Phase One was during the weekend of November 5th/6th. . During mass we tooka few minutes and asked one person from each family to fill in the Census booklet right there. By the end of the weekend, we had recorded over a thousand families. Census booklets are available in English, Spanish, Italian and Kreyol. Over the following two weeks, tables were available at the entrances to the church and school so people who were away during the initial weekend had a chance to do their census.

Phase Two involves reaching out to those parishioners we already know are in our programs -- school, religious education, outreach, etc. If they didn’t get a chance to do the Census in the first few weeks, we’ll ask them to do it through the program they’re enrolled in. The same goes for folks involved in parish ministries and societies.

Phase Three involves mailing the Census booklet to all those we have not heard from in the first two phases. And the final phase is ongoing --offering people a chance to do the census when they come to us for some event or service -- booking a wedding, getting a mass card, etc.

If you know of any parishioner who hasn’t been included in our Census (perhaps a homebound neighbor), feel free to pick up an extra Census booklet at church and bring that person a Census booklet and then you can return that booklet to the office. Remember, the reason for our census is to get an accurate “snapshot” of ALL our parish family.

If you have questions abolut our census, contact Rob Cammarata for more information.