Are we losing our religion?
5m Ireland Stood Increased The Figure 736,210 People With Revealed Religion For Census 2022 Roman Catholic Identified At As In No People 3
Let’s get it over with: Is there anything to be said for another Mass? In light of the latest data from Census 2022 regarding religion, maybe the real question is whether there is anything to be said for more Mass-goers.
The total number of Roman Catholics in Ireland fell by 180,783 between 2016 and 2022, meaning some 3.5m people still identified as Catholic on their Census forms.
Alongside this, the figure for people with no religion increased by 284,269, to 736,210. With the number of people who are Church of Ireland remaining static at almost 125,000, there has been a rise in the number of people of other faiths and more general indications of an urban/rural divide.
In Dublin City, 53% said they were Catholic versus 80% in Mayo, while almost a quarter of those living in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown said they had no religion, compared with just 7% in Monaghan.
In one sense, the latest Census data simply follows a pattern that has emerged over recent decades. Roman Catholics accounted for 69% of the population in Census 2022, down from 78.3% in 2016 and from 84.2% in 2011. In 1961, the comparable figure stood at 94.9%.
Running parallel with the fall in those who proclaim a religious faith has been a drop in ordinations, leaving the Catholic Church, in particular, with questions over how best to marshal its resources.
In its most recent Diocesan Mass Survey, published this month, the situation in the Diocese of Raphoe was laid out in unsparing detail.
“The figures (available for every parish at Raphoe.ie) are much lower than they were in the past,” it said.
The diocese has 33 parishes and 71 churches which are served by 48 active priests with 122 weekend Masses throughout the diocese and 236 weekday Masses. That does not include funerals and weddings.
While three priests are in their 30s, three others are in their 80s, the remainder in between.
“This current age profile tells us that a further shortage is coming and changes are coming sooner for some parishes,” it said.
“So that will leave 38 active priests to cover 33 parishes and 71 churches. In 10 years’ time, should the current trend continue, there will be more parishes than priests.”
The reshaping of parishes has been ongoing over recent years. In the rural diocese of Killala, for example, three priests have the pastoral care of six parishes, namely two parishes each.
According to Bishop John Fleming, there are eight priests over the age of 70 years in the diocese and nine over the age of 60. There is one serving priest aged under 40. The sense from the bishop is that the work goes on.
“The Synodal Pathway inspired by Pope Francis is being actively pursued in the diocese, with each parish having a parish pastoral council etc,” he said.
In Cork and Ross the process of reorganising the diocese into “families of parishes” is “almost done”, according to Fr Tom Hayes.
The restructuring process began last summer, pulling parishes across West Cork into 16 distinct areas. The distances involved are not inconsiderable, with Schull and Bantry in one area.
In his pastoral letter heralding the restructuring last August, the Bishop of Cork and Ross, Fintan Gavin, said: “A system that served well in the past is crumbling. In the past, the local community was also the faith community — where going to Mass was the place where you met everyone, young and old.
The bishop touched on another issue: That of families marking significant milestones — First Communion, in particular — only to remain generally absent at other times.
“While it is wonderful to see large numbers coming forward for First Communion and Confirmation, it is disheartening that so few actually participate in the local faith community — even the day after such important events where priests, teachers, and parishes have invested so much energy,” he said.
The bishop also referred to the ageing profile of priests and the challenges ahead, stating “our parish faith communities cannot stand still”. He concluded: “Change is inevitable.”
Achonry Diocese had its last ordination 10 years ago. In contrast, in the Diocese of Derry, there are there are three scheduled ordinations for new priests this year.
That diocese — which has 40 parishes in the North and 11 in the Republic — also has four priests from other countries temporarily exercising ministry.
One is from Belarus and acts as a chaplain to the Polish-speaking community in the diocese; three are from India, and are Syro-Malabar Church priests, of whom one is chaplain to the Syro-Malabar Church community within the territory of the Diocese of Derry, and two are temporary chaplains. Maybe the priests and clergy from overseas will help sustain parishes in future in much the same way that nurses and doctors from overseas help prop up the health system?
For Fr Paddy Byrne, parish priest in Abbeyleix, Co Laois, the parishioners and practitioners from elsewhere are a vital component in our religious life.
A prolific tweeter, he does not always conform to the traditional view, referring to pop culture icons such as Tina Turner and Lemmy from Motorhead, as well as making more pointed observations, such as the time he tweeted about why it was acceptable for him to bless a tractor, but not give a blessing to a same-sex couple.
Moreover, he views the latest Census data as something to hold onto.
“I don’t experience it as a dead and dysfunctional Church,” Fr Byrne says.
In fact, he remarks that he was “shocked” that so many people had ticked the Roman Catholic box, seeing it as encouraging that 3.5m people would do so “after everything the Church has been through”.
“Just because people are not sitting in pews to the same extent, how do we measure people’s faith?” Fr Byrne asks.
He sees the idea that Mass attendance is the only gauge of the health of the church as erroneous, a pre-occupation.
He sees the pontificate of Pope Francis as “one of the bright stars”, of how it has reorientated the Church away from one with too much emphasis on role and order and not enough focus on the idea of service and the message of Jesus Christ.
He sees people like Fr Peter McVerry as being “hands on” when it comes to addressing real issues faced by vulnerable people, adding that when it comes to a religious sense of mission, “where people are gathered is essentially at the crossroads and the periphery.
“We have spent too much time in Ireland listening to the smaller number of people who are extremely faithful to the traditional model of the church and yet not as keen in engaging in the refugee crisis and with climate change,” Fr Byrne says.
Bishop William Crean of the Diocese of Cloyne said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the Census data.
“I have just done my fourth round of confirmations and I must say I came away from it with a great sense of being heartened by a sense of faith.
“I know well many of them may not be regular attenders, but I certainly detected a strong sense that faith was important to people, certainly a strong spiritual dimension in people’s lives, a real keenness that children would have some spiritual foundation for their lives.”
Bishop Crean sees a “proactive” Church as having a vital role to play, even as “we find ourselves adjusting to the reality on the ground” and developing the role of laypeople.
Fr Byrne also sees a greater role in future for women and laypeople, something the Church of Ireland — traditionally, and still, the second most common denomination — has been pursuing for a long time.
Yet resources are not so plentiful there either; a spokesperson for the Church of Ireland said its programme of ordained local ministry had allowed more people who work full time to play a central role in Church services, and that another initiative, called pioneer ministry, will aim to reach those with little or no connection to church.
What this will actually look like in practice has yet to be decided as, according to the Church of Ireland, it will depend on each area and on the funding available.
But the vision speaks of “the widening gap between the Church and contemporary culture”, adding: “They seek to engage people where they are, rather than inviting them to come to us.”
If we are not losing our religion entirely, then we appear to be engaging more infrequently or in a less-obvious, possibly more-private way.
According to Fr Diarmuid Hogan, diocesan communications officer for the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh, and Kilfenora: “There are many factors to take into account — the decline in vocations to the priesthood and the religious life; the decline in ‘volunteerism’ felt by all charitable and sporting organisations; the proliferation of Church buildings originally provided to serve a much less mobile population; the advent of social media and new ways of communication; the rise of secularism accross society; the joys and challenges presented by immigration into Ireland; the multitude of new and challenging demands made of our young — the list is long.”
But he, too, sees a future of renewal.
“The sole purpose of the Church is to live and teach and preserve the message of Jesus Christ — a radical, subversive message countering hate with love, war with peace, revenge with forgiveness, fear with courage, death with life, despondency with joy.
“Counting heads has never been a particularly useful way of determining religious faith either back a hundred years ago, when 95% professed Catholicism, or now when the census gives a lower number.
“As such, the census, which tells of the enormous number of people across the Republic of Ireland who profess Catholicism is interesting.
“However perhaps, if it were possible, counting hearts would be more telling, more fruitful.”