The Catholic Church wants a future where lay faithful help free up priests to preach more, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
THE CATHOLIC Church in Dublin has become middle class and middle-aged, with weekly Mass attendance now at continental levels.
That is the view of the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, who is deeply concerned about worshipping patterns in Ireland, particularly in urban, working-class areas.
Recent surveys indicate about 44 per cent of self-proclaimed Catholics go to Mass weekly, but the archbishop believes the true figure is close to half this.
"The church in Dublin is middle-class," he says. While "the quality of community in poorer areas is tremendous", the church has for a long time failed to notice a decline in Mass attendances.
"A certain amount of social conformity and bad practice didn't lead people to an understanding of the faith they had, and which they have lost . . . The scandals, too, played a part. Some of the poorer parishes were badly hit. I don't think we can underestimate the real damage done to people's lives [ and the effect this had] on the ability to carry out our mission."
Priests in some urban working-class parishes in Dublin are reporting weekly Mass attendances of 3-5 per cent, while average figures for the capital are in the region of 20-25 per cent. This appears to replicate a pattern throughout urban Ireland.
Dr Martin, who returned to Dublin from a high-profile position in Rome, is struck by the relatively small number of young people who attend church services in Ireland. "I can go to parishes on a Sunday where I find no person in the congregations between the ages of 16 and 36," he says. "An age-filled church is not a good thing."
The issue is brought into sharper focus by an ageing clergy. It is estimated that the average age of priests serving in Dublin today is 63. The retirement age is 75, which means that, if current trends continue, as many as 50 per cent of all priests in the archdiocese will no longer be serving within a decade.
At present, 731 priests serve in the archdiocese, which has 200 parishes and extends over an area of 170km by 80km. With a Catholic population of 1.04 million, it is one of the largest archdioceses in either Britain or Ireland. It takes in all of Co Dublin, almost all of Co Wicklow, much of Co Kildare, as well as parishes in counties Carlow, Wexford and Laois.
The archbishop says this wide geographic spread allows him to respond to anyone suggesting that, as a Dubliner, he knows nothing of rural Ireland; "one half of the food we eat is grown in my diocese", he points out.
He could point out other things, had he a will to do so. For instance, just one of the towns in the archdiocese - Bray, Co Wicklow - has a population of 27,041, making it almost equal to that of the entire Catholic population of the diocese of Achonry in the west of Ireland, which has 34,826 faithful. However, Bray has three parishes and churches, served by eight priests. Achonry has 23 parishes and 47 churches, served by 41 priests.
It is probably such figures that allow Archbishop Martin to maintain a seemingly sanguine disposition before what others would view as a major imminent personnel crisis for his archdiocese.
His bottom line is to have at least "one priest for every church in the archdiocese".
There are 238 churches in that archdiocese. Feasibly, with such aspirations, Archbishop Martin's "one church, one priest" policy could be achieved with less than a third of those priests currently serving in the archdiocese.
He does not like the word "clustering" when describing the combining of parishes for service by a lesser number of priests. He prefers the concept of "hub parishes/communities", around which communities would "work together for mission".
Theoretically, such hub parishes might be centred, for example, on Bray or Arklow in Co Wicklow, or Dún Laoghaire, Tallaght, Blanchardstown, or Balbriggan in Co Dublin. Each would have "identities as pastoral areas where one priest would have a strong co-ordinating role".
Each would also be "a transport/cultural hub, reflecting the type of interaction and mobility which belongs to and reflects the particular urban environment - an urban agglomeration with Balbriggan as a focal point, for example", he says.
The archbishop envisages a future where priests "will be freed up to preach the word of God and celebrate the sacraments". He estimates there are 20 types of ministry which could be undertaken by lay faithful. Most of this work would be voluntary, he adds, citing areas such as pastoral care, administration, and child protection.
While some believe attitudes towards the church have hardened since the clerical-abuse scandals, the archbishop says he has detected "no anti-clericalism" but rather "enormous goodwill towards priests" in Dublin. He has noticed this particularly at priests' funerals when, on occasion, such has been the grief and outpouring of affection, he has had to withdraw or he would himself be overwhelmed in public.
"But all professions need rejuvenation", which would not be possible where priesthood was concerned "if there is no pastoral outreach to young people". This represents "the biggest challenge - the rebuilding of contact with the younger generation, who are a great generation".
The primary objective is to help the young to be "open to the transcendent. To go beyond the self." Parishes "must become involved in core support faith groups for the young". In general, the archdiocese has to look "at a much more evangelical outreach".
Complementing the "huge efforts of teachers" where religious formation in schools is concerned, particularly when it comes to preparation for the sacraments at primary level, he continues: "I believe we have to work towards a situation where the parish is more involved in this."
This is particularly the case where through increased mobility, the relationship of parish, family, and school is no longer there. He knows of one school in Dublin, for instance, where 80 per cent of the children come from outside the parish.
Young people "have to feel they belong to the parish . . . it has to become a more vital part of religious education", especially so since few parents have training in religious education."Parishes must assume a greater role in faith formation, with schools as strong partners in that process," he adds.
As regards schools generally, he repeats his belief in the necessity for "a plurality of patronage" in the increasingly diverse Ireland of today. The Catholic Church in Ireland has to "stop thinking we have to provide everything".
But, he advises, "if we want plurality of patronage, the State must ensure plurality exists [ within a community] to ensure a level playing field". On the other hand, he warns, "If we get ghetto schools, it is because we already have ghettos."
A further challenge to the church is the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, which is inquiring into how the archdiocese handled allegations of clerical child sex abuse between January 1975 and the end of April 2004. Dr Martin says it is carrying out its work "in a very business-like way and with no leaks".
He has given evidence to the commission and has supplied it with 66,580 documents, amounting to an estimated 100,000 pages. The commission is expected to produce its report in the autumn.
He believes this will help the archdiocese know what had happened and will "bring more clarity. I hope we can all learn from the analysis which comes out of [ the report]."
He believes the archdiocese "has worked very hard at trying to address the past". The child abuse issue "has created a real difficulty for the church's interaction with the young. Parents are still uneasy and priests are afraid".
Child-protection policies and structures have been put in place. "Good child-protection policies are good priest-protection policies, especially at local level. A lot of progress had been made, but it has not gone away and won't be by saying 'thank God it's all over'." The church should be, and should have been "a model protection environment for children", he adds.
As for himself, and rumours that he is in Dublin for a short time before returning to Rome, he points out that he is in his 60s and that neither of his parents saw out that decade of their lives. He summarises his life, giving the impression things simply "happened". He "drifted into Rome", "was sent to Geneva", and then to Dublin "in a difficult time" and "with very little information".
He knows his limits. "I am more intuitive than systematic. I have an idea I am not good at delegating. I enjoy the job some days. You inevitably encounter a huge amount of hurt, from victims, by church people, from among priests. You have to be able to live with that. And there are certain things I cannot share with anyone. There is no one I can talk to. In that sense, it can be difficult," he says.
The Catholic church by numbers
The Catholic Church is by far the largest Christian denomination in Ireland and also the largest Christian denomination in both jurisdictions on the island.
According to its own figures, there are 3,966,506 Catholics in its 26 dioceses on the island.Its largest diocese is Dublin, with 1,041,100 adherents. The next largest is Down and Connor (centred on Belfast), which has 312,056 Catholics.
The smallest Catholic diocese in Ireland is Clonfert, which includes east Galway as well as parishes in Offaly and Roscommon. It has 32,000 Catholics.
As with all Christian denominations and faith groups, there is a disparity between official figures of Catholic Church membership and that of the church itself. According to the 2006 census, there were 3,681,400 Catholics in the Republic, or 86.8 per cent of its total population.
The last census with a religion question in Northern Ireland was in 2001 and it found there were 737,472 Catholics there, accounting for 43.76 per cent of its population.
Therefore, the official figure for all Catholics in Ireland is 4,418,872, out of a total population of 5,925,067 (ie using a 2006 total population figure for the Republic of 4,239,800 and a 2001 total population figure for Northern Ireland of 1,685,267).
