New poll shows most Irish Catholics ignore church teachings, skip mass

Ken from Dublin -- Brilliant. The Holy Bus. Is it a Class 2 relic?

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

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

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!

@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!!!!!!!

@mairint - "Those who are first shall be last, and those who are last shall be first"!!

mairint. As long as you`re prepared to to leave your family at the mercy of those who practice differant from what they preach.

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.

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"....

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.

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

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.

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!

More catholic stuff... of course I forgot Ireland is 100% catholic!!

Yes, they really should SNAP out of it.

Mortimer - it took me a while but now that I see it clearly, it is both sad and sickening. Very clear and sharply pointed lefty agenda. Gearoid - yes, you are correct. Their search engines are also on the lookout for their pet loves who they slobber over daily; Obama, Christine Quinn, Clintons, etc. nauseating.

The IC crowd must use search engines with keywords like "catholic" "opinion polls","dissent" and "sex-abuse" etc to search for stories which contain the usual leftist, anti-Catholic bias which mirrors their own(i.e. IC editorial staff and bloggers) viewpoint. These stories are then usually redacted or shown verbatim with a few changes here and there with glaring headlines.

Yes, Smyrnian, that's becoming very clear to me.

Smyrnian, yes, that's now becoming very clear to me.

What is the purpose of this story, other than the usual IC anti-Catholic rhetoric?

On the doctrine front, the Commandments are a Judeo-Christian ethic; the Nicene Creed, after serving as a core tenet for 1700 or - years in the life of the Church, has been arbitrarily changed - to what conceivable purpose is unknown to me; the Catholic Church, as an institution, seems "indifferent" to the Apostle's Creed, beyond, perhaps, sacramental preparation for Confirmation. On the social science front, what were the sampling techniques of the Irish Times study? What is the gender, and SES characteristics - beyond age, with its acknowledged, strident, generational entrenchments - of the survey's respondents?

This is a newsflash that Catholic don't believe in everything the church says? duh.... ....your comment is directed to Irish people in general and is offensive. The Church, spirituality, and faith's are our access to God.... we are intelligent beings that know what is right and what is wrong. Their is value in church teachings, their is value in mass and the sacraments and to say there isn't is to become a strong agnostic or atheist.... it's your decision on how to live your life.... To be Catholic is complex and cultural

cillowen what are you trying to say. what free stuff? from who? if you mean the un-religous catholic churches they don't help the poor and needy allthat money goes to them in Rome

KatieM, Bishop/Cardinal William Levada was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith when the Vatican went after the sisters in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Levada quickly retired when that blew up in his face. Of course his history of protecting pedophile priests was never dealt with and he continues to hide out in Rome with his other co-conspirator Cardinal Bernard Law. There are Irish Cardinals and bishops also hiding in the Vatican to either escape prosecution or detection. It's simply scandalous what these old men are up to. Little wonder that the faithful is sceptical of its leadership.

The core tenets of Christianity are in the 10 Commandments, Nicene Creed, and the Apostle's Creed. All the others are added layers over time: the interpretations of Scripture - what Jesus did or did not say or do and the exact meaning of every word and action of everyone in the Bible - and the church traditions that may or may not have any scientific/historical/Biblical basis are what usually causes debate and dissent. All Christian denominations struggle to remain relevant to their parishioners dealing with the present day social issues and life changes in modern day times.

Its not really the catholic church teachings.......... Its the endless hidden molestation of children by the abnormal enforcement of celibacy. In the USA alone 100,000 per SNAP (survivors network of those abused by priests) its the German pope who in 2009 UNexcommunciated a holocaust survivor, Bishop Williamson in 2009 (check the web). Williamson was living in ARgentina and was kicked out of the country and this was the event that leg in 2010 to the Argentinians allowing gay people to wed. Followed by Mexico, Columbia , Brazil. The mentality of the Pope was shaped by his growing up in germany, mixed with his running the CDF for a decade or more - the CDF of course being the successor to the Ultra Unholy Inquisition. Until you take back the church from this pope and all he has appointed who are similar one should not even call the church a church. as a catholic friend of mine said before she and her family and most of my family left the church "When Benedict was selected as pope, I cried" "and they were not tears of Joy" (

not good - for the cost of running such a freebee for years operation that took a load off gov (taxpayers) the burden of paying high priced teachers and the like - Now suck it up ya'll.

They've been listening to Fr. Doogle's sermons (from "Father Ted" of Craggy Isle fame!

Having dwelt there for an extended peroid I'm not one bit surprised at the culture which is built on hypocracy and moral decay.

t’s about time ...it’s WAY past time ...for people to take control of their own destiny, their own lives. There are so many priests, preachers, and assorted shamans out there --"men of the cloth"- who have the unmitigated gall, the sheer arrogance, of claiming to speak for God, and with God. And we ...we must listen, and follow, and obey. Or so they say. They claim a direct pipeline to the Almighty! God did this, God told me. God loves that. God hates this. God wants this. Oh, and drop another coin in the basket before you leave please ...as God demands. It's gotten so bad that now they think that.... they ARE God - with THE “RIGHT” TO TAKE WOMEN’S LIVES! ENOUGH already! I say to them all: Go back to whatever burrow you came from, you charlatans, and leave us -and our country- alone. For we're a free and proud people, and will remain so - without your shameful meddling in both our private lives, and our public institutions. Religion is a personal matter - NOT something to be FORCED on others! Don't just accept something because it comes from a religious "voice of authority". For ultimately YOU are responsible for your life, and how you try to live it. That’s why you have freedom of choice and a conscience: to choose, NOT just to blindly follow..... We need to start acting like Men and Women...not sheep.