Less that one in five Dublin Catholics now go to Mass every Sunday – and the real figure is perilously close to one in ten.
A new survey into the affairs of the Dublin diocese has reported that just 14 per cent of Catholics in the capital are weekly mass goers.
The situation in Ireland’s largest Catholic diocese has been described at the Diocese’s ‘biggest crisis since emancipation in 1829’ by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Bishop Martin made his remarks, reported by the Irish Times newspaper, after the report that weekly Mass attendance in Dublin is down to 14 per cent, 164,000 out of a Catholic population of 1,162,000.
The new report also stated that: “Of those who do attend Mass, all Sunday Mass-goers could almost be accommodated at one Mass per church per week.”
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The Archbishop warned: “The change that will take place between now and the year 2020 - just eight years away - will be enormous.
“I am more and more convinced that they will be the most challenging years that the diocese has had to face since Catholic Emancipation.”
Reacting to the report, Archbishop Martin added: “There is a real change in the religious culture of this diocese.
“Societies like our own, where faith and the Christian life once flourished and faith communities were strong, are now undergoing a far-reaching transformation.
“Today we encounter not so much a situation in which people are torn between two realities, one God’s and the other Caesar’s, but a world in which in many ways the reality of God is slowly being eclipsed and men and women live their lives as if God does not exist.”
The Bishop then acknowledged that his Church is now paying the price of so many sexual abuse scandals.
He went on to say: “The cultural infrastructure which for decades supported belief and the transmission of the faith began slowly to show signs of wear and tear.
“But for many, the recent sexual abuse scandals and the mismanagement of the response to them were the final disillusionment with the church, and from indifference they moved to anger at the church.
“We are going down a road which is uncharted. That can be unnerving but we should not overlook the signs of hope that are present within the church in Dublin.”
“Numbers attending church may be down but there are parishes which have never been as vibrant in their history as they are today.”
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.ciaradexy | Dec 27, 2011, 08:46 PM EST
This is old news. People have opened their eyes and minds and have started questioning the whole fairy tale that is religion. Its a complex misogynistic lie that was created to control people!
CaptainCon | Dec 16, 2011, 08:36 AM EST
Ah but he didn't solicit donations in order to 'pay sexual abuse claims' did he? Thats your spin and your words added to the soliciting bit isn't it IrelandNorth? It is confession for you again tomorrow and don't conveniently forget to tell the priest that that you were deliberately dishonest on Friday. The solicited donations were for the parishes and because the church has had to quietly pay out so much money in order to stop some truly horrendous cases entering the public record via the court room. Thats what I like about fervent church defenders- always just living the ethical catholic dream and not a problem about lying to forward that dream.
IrelandNorth | Dec 16, 2011, 08:25 AM EST
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, (a generally perceived good guy) recently solicited donations from wealthy Catholics to fund sexual abuse claims. Would this not implicate such contributors as accessories after the fact in such crimes of clerical child sexual abuse.
butlerreport | Dec 15, 2011, 10:53 AM EST
'Less that one in five Dublin Catholics now go to Mass every Sunday – and the real figure is perilously close to one in ten.' Who taught you how to write. It should be 'Fewer than one in five...' So which is it one in five or one in ten. Why quote one number when the 'real figure' is something else. Shoddy writing.
CitizenWhy | Dec 15, 2011, 10:24 AM EST
Interesting that only 14% of Boston Catholics also attend Mass weekly. I wonder how many are elderly? 40% of Boston parishes say they cannot pay their bills.
CitizenWhy | Dec 15, 2011, 01:29 AM EST
Either the Roman Catholic church is the sole depository of complete truth, or it isn't. That's it. We no longer look to the church for truth or insight or guidance on how to live because its arrogant claims to be the source of truth are false.
helmet365 | Dec 14, 2011, 10:41 PM EST
I should have added it must be disappointing for the majority of innocent priests who have been let down.(my Catholic concience working).
helmet365 | Dec 14, 2011, 10:27 PM EST
We often hear the case that clerical abusers are only a small pecentage of the total number of Catholic clerics, and say it happens in similar numbers in the general population. The general population do not spend up to 7 years training to teach morals. No consolation to the abused. You would have to scour the world to find similar cases of 2 people being responsible for 26 suicides as i previously posted from a police report regarding 2 Catholic clerics.
helmet365 | Dec 14, 2011, 09:11 PM EST
Good call.
Collette2 | Dec 14, 2011, 09:10 PM EST
Yes helmet365, and with a little research, by following links, you will find a group fighting for justice which inclued in their members a law enforcement officer, a politician and a lawyer, the latter two of the three, having Irish contacts. See how far we have gone, to be used as a benchmark. Diarmud Martin wouldn't be too pleased about that.
Ratslayer | Dec 14, 2011, 08:51 PM EST
Easy solution. Allow priests to marry and have families -- and tell Rome to f-off once and for all.
helmet365 | Dec 14, 2011, 06:57 PM EST
Read (google) "Abuse by two Catholic members of the clergy are responsible for 26 suicides" police say. Extract from a newspaper, Melbourne, Australia. Multiply this by the thousands of clergy abusers around the world and you get some idea how mmany victims have lost their lives while others have had their lives ruined. The flow on effect to other family members is enormous. Why don't we go to Church?
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 03:41 PM EST
Just noticed your post Intercessor- best of luck to you as you may have a difficult job on your hands. What is the teaching of history but an attempt at truth? The church speaks of Truth as if they owned it and it would be interesting to see whether they'd allow truth to appear in history books in catholic ethos schools about the events of the last twenty years. I have a feeling they'd be less than gracious on the subject.
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 03:06 PM EST
Congratulations to the four in five catholics who have chosen to stay away. This is heartening in that they have realised that giving money in the collection box to that organisation and being counted in the numbers on Sunday is a way the catholic church has of brushing off valid criticism. The silence of almost empty churches is by far the most eloquent comment on the state of that organisation.
tocon1941 | Dec 14, 2011, 02:06 PM EST
Really? Some people are still going?
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 01:16 PM EST
'which is' a pretty poor place for a human to be intellectually...
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 01:13 PM EST
I have a theory and there is a certain amount of evidence for this that those catholics who snipe at victims of predator priests aren't really protecting the priests but are attempting to defend themselves because they identify so closely with the catholic church. In essence they do not see how they can have an ethical philosophy without the catholic church is a pretty poor place for a human to be intellectually. Many elderly and right wing catholics aren't even religious but just associate themselves with what they see as the ultimate authority figure ('god') and a peculiarly unreachable god at that when it comes to checking in on ethical matters- which leaves room for personal interpretation which appeals to the 'catholic' wingnut. They can pick and choose and swerve ethically all over life's philosophical highway and still preserve their own grip on their personal need for unquestioned authority in their lives. I see references to 'Satan' and to 'hell' from these people and they aren't even educated enough to know that 'hell' as a place of damnation for eternity wasn't even adopted by the catholic church until the 6th century and that was stolen from Manichaenism via Augustine of Hipp. Satan is another entirely adopted concept which didn't appear in catholic church dogma or philosophy until the third century after their putative messiah's death. Then again deliberate ignorance is something of a party trick with the fervent of mind.
Murph46 | Dec 14, 2011, 12:44 PM EST
intercessor you nailed it -I wondered what happened to Ex Cathedra.It was literally pounded into us.It was in the Catechism and then later on vanished.I had anguish over that one as my Mom wasn't Catholic.
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 12:43 PM EST
We still see this nonsense that paedophilia is linked to homosexuality in the minds of those who wish to 'externalise' blame from the catholic church. This is as nonsensical as those who seek to blame the 1960s. We have first hand testimony in the public domain from abusive priests that gender of the target did not matter. This is also backed up by reports commissioned for the catholic bishops of the United States by properly accredited psychologists which clearly points to a kind of 'arrested development' among the catholic clergy and in particular an extreme narcissism in those males who were groomed for the priesthood from theirb adolescent years. We will find out much more detail on the psychology of the abusive priest from the Institute of Pyschology in Germany over the next few years which are highly likely to present some major issues for the catholic church. One cannot divert sexuality without causing damage. The notion that homosexuality is behind predator priests is not borne out by the pyschological literature. And that is official in church funded reports from reputable and independent psychologists.
Intercessor | Dec 14, 2011, 12:34 PM EST
HI, CaptainCon: Being a teacher, I enjoyed your post (found at the bottom of the page). May I suggest that if the Church in Ireland remains in control of the educational system in Ireland, in the future, when teaching about the Priest Pedophilia Scandal and the mass Exodus out of the Catholic Church in Ireland, that the Church will take Her playbook out of post war Germany: It's called "History Revisionism!"
Intercessor | Dec 14, 2011, 12:23 PM EST
"Torn between two realities?" I encourage all who have left the Church to meditate on the words of Jesus: "The kingdom of God is WITHIN!" There is the so-called, "reality" that the Church teaches and on the other-hand there are the words of Jesus. God's kingdom does not know denominational boundaries. For years, I was taught as a Catholic that ONLY Catholics would be SAVED! It is known as the "Ex Cathedra Doctrine." For those who don't know the Latin translation, it means "Outside of the Church there is NO Salvation!" Then, one day, I picked up the Bible and started to read the Gospels for myself. I was no longer "Torn between two realities!" The words of Jesus soon became more of a comfort and "REALITY" than all of the so called "Catholic doctrine" that I learned from birth. I encourage all to discover the real Kingdom of God: Find it in the Bible.
McNamara31 | Dec 14, 2011, 12:06 PM EST
The key word in this article is indeed "disillusionment" Many of us who where practicing Catholics were shaken to the core by what we now know happened within our Church.I still think the church has failed to find a proper and empathetic way to reach out and help us regain our faith once again.
mamaginnty | Dec 14, 2011, 12:01 PM EST
These bishops keep telling us we do not now believe in God, haven't they caught on yet, the paragraph where he finally mentions the word abuse is the reason for the drop in church goers, not in God or the faith but because of what the so called servants of God have done.
Friedaaaa | Dec 14, 2011, 11:31 AM EST
No doubt the waves will be getting even bigger soon. St. Patrick's special request comes to mind. When you leave the Church, you're leaving St Paddy behind and all our ancestors who gave their lives for it. Christ is the head of the Church, even with its human failings. Sin is everywhere but it only gets reported when a Catholic commits it. Wake up and quit being manipulated or are 90% of those Irish who are left in Ireland the ones who "took the soup". I never believed it until now.
JBethlehem | Dec 14, 2011, 11:20 AM EST
The Devil attacks us where we are most vounerable. We in the united States have just gone through all of this with our Priests and Bishops, but we as Catholics have grown stronger out of it. Do not lose your faith over falable people who have wronged you. Hold fast to that which you have been taught and what has not changed. God will take care of those Priests and individuals who have done these horrible things. But remember the good Priests and bishops who have held strong to their vows and have been strong enough to come forward and aid in the removal of these men. And most of all, don't give up!!! This is what Satan wants you to do. I will pray for you all. An American Catholic who has seen the light.
CitizenWhy | Dec 14, 2011, 11:02 AM EST
The two worlds are what the bishops and hierarchy think and do and what the Gospels say. Where do the Gospels say that the church is to be an absolute monarchy guided by a self-serving oligarchy welded a global top-down corporation driven by money and preserving prestige at all costs?
CitizenWhy | Dec 14, 2011, 10:49 AM EST
I have admired Archbishop Martin for his honesty in confronting his own Church with respect to the Pedophilia scandal but we part company here. On the one hand he expresses great alarm at the diminishing numbers of Catholics attending Mass, hence being "good" Catholics. In the same breath he tells these lapsed Catholics to have the "maturity" to make it official and leave the Church. This sounds like a pouting boy who, losing the game, takes the ball and goes home, as in "that'l teach them." Remarkably foolish for the good bishop. The church has lost its moral credibility and the people have lost their fear and awe of the Church - talking about the emperor having no clothes! Dr. Martin makes another fundamental mistake - he equates being a good Catholic with believing in God, as if both are the same thing. This is self-serving nonsense. I have not lost my faith but I have lost my religion.
dogmamom | Dec 14, 2011, 10:46 AM EST
When the people are bad, the priests will be bad. That's how it works. Blame yourselves and may God forgive us all.
laallyboy | Dec 14, 2011, 10:05 AM EST
"We are going down a road which is uncharted" sez yer man. I sincerely doubt it, for many tyrannies have been cast off before, including the witch-doctor type that flourished in Ireland until recently. Paddy is an amazingly generous, open-minded, tolerant, and practical lad when you get right down to it, but isolation and the tyranny of both clerics and foreign land grabbers from bigger more powerful countries kept him down until global communication and travel knocked the walls down. Ya can't put them back up Diarmuid. Nil an laidir agat !
esatdigiwank | Dec 14, 2011, 09:48 AM EST
Irish historians will not need to explain in sch. books; History as a subject in our education system is dying and on its way out. Don't get yr hopes up re . demise of rc church - new papal ambassador is a youthful Irish-American. With the World Catholic Congress coming here in '12 , Rottweiler visiting Ire. may revive things..: /
CaptainCon | Dec 14, 2011, 09:14 AM EST
Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out Bishop. Corruption and institutional degeneracy brings its own rewards in the end. At some point in the future Irish historians are going to have to find a way in schoolbooks of explaining to staring children how an organisation as corrupt as the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland had the barefaced cheek to admit on one hand that they've been destroyed because of child abuse issues and at the same time are suggesting to government that their ethos is the only system within which children in Ireland should experience school. Best of luck explaining that one to the open-mouthed students of the future, teachers of Irish social history.