Martin: Dublin is mission territory

ARCHBISHOP of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said the capital city is “mission territory” after a survey revealed his congregation are the least likely in Ireland to believe in God or attend mass.

The Irish Examiner’s Red C survey showed a higher proportion of his congregation objected to the Church’s teaching on moral issues.

Residents of Dublin also prayed the least, compared with other regions.

Archbishop Martin said he realised Dublin people had drifted, but he was optimistic about the future. He was speaking during a busy schedule of Easter Week ceremonies.

“In many ways Dublin is mission territory and it is very clear a lot of people in Dublin do not know the Lord. But there is a new dynamism in the Church in Dublin and there is a dynamism in parishes. It doesn’t have the numbers of old, but there is a clear vision and people want to bring the message out there and want to change the church,” he said.

He said parish workers were bringing the Church’s message beyond Sunday mass and next year he plans for every home in Dublin to be visited to discuss their feelings about religion.

Archbishop Martin said it was important to show people mistakes made during the sexual abuse scandals would not happen again and that the Church is changing for the better.

“I am going to go out next year and make sure every house in the diocese is visited so people will know the Church is there for them.

“I want to see that the Church appears more and more as a caring Church and that anybody wounded receives compassion and comfort and anybody on the margins of society will see that the Christian community is a community that cares,” he said.

The Red C survey showed while deference to the Church was most pronounced in Dublin it was not exclusive to the capital and across the country just 45% of people attended mass on a regular basis.

In the diocese of Cork and Ross, Bishop John Buckley said the Church had to accept young people were not practising in the traditional way.

However, he said there was strong evidence among young people of a vibrant desire to be a part of religion and this could be seen in the numbers going on pilgrimages to Lourdes and the energy put into special religious ceremonies in schools.

The bishop’s spokesman, Fr Tom Hayes, said while the survey found many people avoided mass because they are too busy it was important to show them this weekly event could be a sanctuary from chaotic schedules. “We have to recognise that young people in particular are living in a culture that is so volatile and they rarely do the same thing two days in row. So a change has to come that helps people see the value of the mass,” he said.