Protestant churches in the North are suffering a declining membershipwhile the number of Catholics is increasing. Suzanne Breen reports
There is no evidence that religious identification in the North has weakened during the peace process, a leading academic has said. Prof John Brewer of Queen's University told a seminar in north Belfast yesterday that nine out of 10 people still identified themselves as belonging to a church, compared to only two out of 10 in Britain.
While weekly church attendance was falling for all religions in the North, the pace of secularisation was still much slower than in Britain. Prof Brewer's paper, "Are there any Christians in Northern Ireland?" was based on the 1998 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, an analysis of which has only just been made available.
About 2,000 people took part in the study. The mainstream Protestant churches - Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Methodist - have suffered a "haemorrhaging membership", Prof Brewer said. Their numbers declined from 47 per cent in 1991 to 39 per cent while the proportion of people describing themselves as Catholics rose from 35 to 38 per cent.
Nine per cent of people said they had no religion and 12 per cent belonged to other Christian denominations, mainly Protestant, including Baptists, Free Presbyterians, and liberal charismatic and independent house churches.
While 63 per cent of Catholics described themselves as nationalists, 33 per cent said they were neither nationalist nor unionist, while 74 per cent of mainstream Protestants said they were unionist and 24 per cent said they were neither unionist nor nationalist.
Catholics were much more tolerant of social security fraud and tax-evasion. Only 28 per cent thought social security fraud was seriously wrong compared to 50 per cent of mainstream Protestants; 14 per cent of Catholics thought tax-evasion was seriously wrong compared to 22 per cent of mainstream Protestants.
A fifth of Catholics and mainstream Protestants thought sex before marriage was "always wrong", and over 70 per cent of both groups thought the same of adultery. Catholics were more liberal on homosexuality, with 50 per cent considering it always wrong compared to 68 per cent of mainstream Protestants.
Catholics were also slightly more liberal on gender positions in the home, but they were more traditional on the issue of marriage. Only 11 per cent approved of a couple living together without intending to get married compared to 13 per cent of mainstream Protestants and 16 per cent of other Christians.
Between 1991 and 1998, the proportion of Catholics attending Mass every week fell from 82 to 67 per cent and mainstream Protestant weekly church attendance fell from 34 to 29 per cent.
The number of people in the North who never pray increased from 10 to 16 per cent. Those who had no doubts that God existed fell from 61 to 51 per cent. Those who did not believe in God rose from 2 to 4 per cent.
Prof Brewer said mainstream Protestantism appeared to have an ageing population; 27 per cent were aged 18-34 compared to 33 per cent of Catholics and 19 per cent were over 65 compared to 12 per cent of Catholics.
Women dominated within Catholicism, comprising 57 per cent of Catholics. The opposite was true of other Christians - 57 per cent were male. "When men do religion, they clearly prefer to do the conservative kind," Prof Brewer said.
Mainstream Protestants tended to be more working-class. The professional, managerial class accounted for 40 per cent of Catholics compared to 23 per cent of mainstream Protestants.