New poll shows most Irish Catholics ignore church teachings, skip mass
Big majorities in favor of married priests and female clerics as old values fade
Published Friday, November 30, 2012, 7:12 AM
Updated Friday, November 30, 2012, 10:50 AM
Larger Text
Print
E-mail
30 Comments
Latest poll shows 7 per cent of Catholics do not even believe in God
Photo by Google images
Over one in five Irish who say they are Catholics do not believe in the resurrection, or that God created the universe, an Irish Times poll has shown.
It also showed that seven per cent of Irish Catholics do not even believe in God. 84 per cent believe priests should marry, while 80 per cent believe women should be priests.
The survey reveals ala carte Catholicism is very much in fashion in Ireland, with 78 per cent saying they do not follow church teaching but their own individual conscience on issues.
Meanwhile 45 per cent do not believe in hell and 18 per cent do not believe that God created man.
On some issues however they are traditional. 92 per cent believe in God, 82 per cent believe in heaven and 84 per cent believe Jesus was the son of God.
Read More: How Catholic are you? The five questions you must answer to qualify
Mass attendance is also under pressure with 34 per cent saying they go weekly and 16 per cent saying they very rarely attended. When that question was asked in 1998 the percentage of mass goers was 55 per cent.
90 per cent of the poll described themselves as Catholic and only 2 per cent Protestant.
Read full details from the Irish Times poll here.
30 Comments
See all comments
warlocks | Dec 03, 2012, 02:02 AM EST
Stanchaz i agree with you 100% the Church & the Pope, Cardinals,Bishops have lost their way they are so out of touch with the people. no wonder the church is in Decay. its rotten from the Top Down to the local Pedophile Priests.Maybe God is giving enough Rope to hang them ! and start a new Church of God
Report abuse
warlocks | Dec 03, 2012, 01:47 AM EST
why should i Bother to Comment! you Deleted what i had to say 24 hours ago now put that in your Pipe and smoke it
Report abuse
SingleDonald | Dec 01, 2012, 07:06 PM EST
Interesting survey! While I attend weekly mass, I, as previously reported, utterly reject Matthew 5:28, and the guilt ridden writings of St. Augustine. Old fashioned Catholics, along with the Fundamentalists, worship an ego maniacal, control freak god, who feels that eternal damnation is the just "punishment" for minor, and even non transgressive matters! Most of us have happily become enlightened enough to not feel the need to go to confession over such innocuous things as sexual thoughts, masturbation, looking at Playboy/Playgirl, and pre marital sex. The well being of one's partner is what matters most in any sexual encounter, NOT the fact that the activity was engaged in. I can draw an analogy with the colonies rising up against England, during the American Revolution. Human beings reach a point of enlightenment, when they break free of repressive,guilt inspiring teachings, just as the colonies fought to overcome the domination of the British Empire. Priests can hardly stick to the old teachings, when their vocation has endured the pedophile scandal!
Report abuse
barneyjo | Dec 01, 2012, 06:53 PM EST
@ken from dublin - like yourself and indeed a good part of the population of Ireland, as a youth of 17 I travelled to Ballybritt Racecourse in Galway to a mass for the youth of Ireland, and officiated over by his Holiness Pope John Paul II. On many levels it was a very moving day; but then I also recall that two of the leading lights and speakers on that day were Bishop Eamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary. Great orators they were, they asked us, the youth of Ireland to re-double our efforts to answer the call to prayer. And I listened in wonderment to Eamon Casey and Michael Cleary that day in September 1979, and I was proud to be a catholic then, just like those two good men!!!!!!!
Report abuse
barneyjo | Dec 01, 2012, 06:41 PM EST
@mairint - "Those who are first shall be last, and those who are last shall be first"!!
Report abuse
seamus60 | Dec 01, 2012, 09:13 AM EST
mairint. As long as you`re prepared to to leave your family at the mercy of those who practice differant from what they preach.
Report abuse
hermitTalker | Dec 01, 2012, 07:00 AM EST
Survey shows a woeful ignorance among Irish Catholics, already acknowledged by Abp. D Martin. Survey shows that some lack common sense about simple matters- such as "Catholics" do not believe in God! Survey did not ask: IF parish priests could marry, would they support them and their families, and IF some would want to serve in villages or very rural areas where their sppuses could not find a job and their childdren a decent school? No one asked what criteria were used for the survey questions, see latest US election polls as one example. AND headline tells us the negative, MOST etc. Ireland has been battered by "one size fits all media" so far Left they are ready to jump into Galway Bay or off the Cliffs of Moher, main target being the Catholic Church with such a bias it is the subject of serious commentary. And their Government has bailed out the crooks and left them with little economic hope. There is a lot more praying going on in the past few years since the CELTIC TIGER turned out to be a tiny Puddy Tat.
Report abuse
mairint | Nov 30, 2012, 09:40 PM EST
If they do not believe then they are not Catholics. They can call themselves whatever they like or think but that has no bearing on their status. As our Holy Father said, "it will be a smaller Church but a more perfect one". Have the readers here ever heard "many are called but few are chosen"?Well, I hope that my faithful family, and me, will make it to the "few"....
Report abuse
seamus60 | Nov 30, 2012, 08:30 PM EST
I would guess that most of those polled say a wee prayer to God when their backs to the wall, regardless of their answers. The faith should not be getting mixed up with the way it is being taught either.
Report abuse
breffnyblue | Nov 30, 2012, 08:28 PM EST
I have always been a follower of Jesus and will die as one.
-Not much can be done about the general decay of Christianity at this stage- The deterioration of Catholic faith is a logical consequence of incompetent leadership in the Christian communities for centuries. They should have been cooperating to gradually adjust and modernize the teachings of Jesus to reconfigure and restate them to keep them abreast as man's understanding of the universe and science expanded.
Already feeling sad today at the burial Mass for a great friend --present in the form of a small jar ashes- I felt worse when I heard "he'll rise again with HIM on the last day"-if only some Church Leader had the backbone to grapple with that type of thing in a timely way.....
Beannacht daoibh go leir
Report abuse
irishpjk | Nov 30, 2012, 07:34 PM EST
wtf. I think it’s a contradiction to say most Irish Catholics don’t believe in god. One of the first requirements to be a catholic is to believe in god, so therefor if you don’t believe in god you would not be considered catholic. A more fitting statement would be the fake Irish Catholics do not believe in god.
Report abuse
eiriamach | Nov 30, 2012, 07:19 PM EST
Is it a Catholic-Trad patella reflex that gets some folks complaining about IC's anti-Catholic bias? I read the following sentences and became convinced that this was another Traditional Catholic Complaint about the changing times: "The survey reveals ala carte Catholicism is very much in fashion in Ireland, with 78 per cent saying they do not follow church teaching but their own individual conscience on issues." As though following one's conscience were not at the heart of Christian faith in action!
Report abuse
anglo-norman | Nov 30, 2012, 05:34 PM EST
More catholic stuff... of course I forgot Ireland is 100% catholic!!
Report abuse
Mortimer74 | Nov 30, 2012, 05:23 PM EST
Yes, they really should SNAP out of it.
Report abuse
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities
- Irishman John Downey arrested for 1982 IRA...
- Michael Flatley, star of Lord of the Dance...
- Nigerian migrants send $653 million a year...
- One in seven people on social welfare in...
- Top bishops clash over excommunication of...
- The top ten things I dislike about Irish...
- U2’s Bono spills on American politicians...
- Do the Irish speak a foreign language?
- Calls for Irish Justice Minister to resign...
Report abuse