Senior figures in the Catholic Church have been putting on a brave face in response to a new survey which confirms a steep drop in attendances at Sunday Mass. The survey, conducted by MRBI for RTE's Prime Time, found that 60 per cent of Catholics in the Republic go to Mass weekly, compared with 77 per cent four years ago, 87 per cent 15 years ago, and 91 per cent 25 years ago. The Hierarchy must be especially troubled by the low level of Sunday attendance among the young: 37 per cent in the 18-24 age group, and 38 per cent for 25-34 year-olds.
Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe has pointed out that a 60 per cent rate of Mass attendance is "relatively high by international standards", but this has a ring of cold comfort in a country long regarded as a bastion of traditional Catholicism.
The collapse in church-going has been paralleled by a loss of respect for the teaching authority of the church: more than half the people surveyed by MRBI reject in varying degrees its official teaching on divorce, contraception, priestly celibacy and women priests. Only 19 per cent agree with the church on contraception; only 21 per cent on celibacy; only 23 per cent on women priests; only 30 per cent on divorce.
These figures, striking as they are, are perhaps not all that surprising in the wake of the damaging series of controversies and scandals involving Bishop Eamonn Casey, Father Michael Cleary, Brendan Smyth and many other clerics; and in the light of the steady growth of what the official Church likes to dismiss as "a la carte Catholicism." The spokesman for the Hierarchy, Father Martin Clarke, has sought mitigation in the finding that 82 per cent of Catholics still regard religion as being "very important" in their lives, describing this as "very significant". It is indeed significant, but perhaps not in the sense intended by Father Clarke. For the discrepancy between this figure and the percentage who feel drawn to weekend Mass suggests that the church is failing to fulfil the spiritual needs of many of its flock. The drift away from the altar may have less to do with clerical scandals and disagreements over doctrine than with a feeling that the official church seems often to lose sight of the central message of its founder.
This was a theme which emerged repeatedly in the prolonged correspondence on this page prompted by the President's reception of Communion at Christ Church Cathedral last December. Again and again, letter-writers expressed their frustration at the attitude of clergy who condemned Mrs McAleese's ecumenical gesture in often uncharitable terms, while evincing no shame at the continuing scandal of Christian disunity in a country riven by sectarian hatred and violence. In the words of Father Brian Darcy, "never was the difference between religion and spirituality more crudely highlighted."
In his response to this week's survey, Father Clarke said the church was "not in the business of adjusting its teachings to follow the wishes of its members." Perhaps not. But it ought to think seriously about adjusting itself.