Damned statistics hide the strength of the Catholic Church in Ireland

IF the Catholic bishops feel discouraged by last week’s Prime Time survey, which shows that only 50% of the population now attends mass each week, they should remember that the Catholic church faces bigger challenges elsewhere.

Rome, for example. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who administers the Rome Archdiocese on behalf of Pope John Paul II, recently commissioned a report on the religious values of young people in his diocese. Sociologist Mario Pollo of Rome's LUMSA University interviewed 120 young people one group of 16-18 year olds and another of 22-26 year-olds. In each group, a solid majority said they believed in God. But their idea of God wasn't necessarily Christian. Some described him as a 'ray of light', others saw him as a 'force of nature', and still more described him in terms of abstract ideas like 'love'.

Some 40% of 16-18 year olds said God was the same for all religions, a phenomenon which Pollo describes as "growing syncretism... a relativisation of one's own religious experience and a sort of equivalence among all the others."

Three-quarters of the 16-18 year-olds think Jesus is a man of great values, but not the Son of God. Strangely enough, it's the reverse with the 22-26 year-olds. Here, three-quarters believe in Christ's divinity, but many see God as an impersonal 'life-force' at the root of all religions.

The report confirms that the church's teachings on sexuality are widely disregarded by young men, even practising Catholics. However, young women are more ambivalent.

Few people will be surprised at this. The impact of secularisation and de-Christianisation has been seen in Europe for decades. And this is Italy after all, a country as famous for its love of la dolce vita as for its affection for the Pope. Contradictions abound here.

The study doesn't tell the whole story, however. New Christian movements such as Sant'Egidio and Communion and Liberation are flourishing in Italy. Plenty of young people are joining.

The church has not been plagued by sex abuse scandals there; it makes more effective use of the media; it has a more confident air.

But if this is the report from the Pope's backyard, shouldn't things be much worse in Ireland? Not so, it seems.

Admittedly, the Prime Time survey did not confine itself to young people; it interviewed 1,000 people of all ages, 91% of them Catholics, taken from urban and rural areas around Ireland.

But there is enough data to show that, even among the young, there are remarkable levels of religious adherence by continental standards.

One quarter of people aged between 18 and 24 attend mass weekly or more frequently and the figure rises to 27% of 25 to 34-year-olds.

These percentages would be a multiple of those among an equivalent age group in Rome. Some 49% of Irish 18 to 24-year-olds say the church is important in their lives comprising of those who said it was 'very important' (17%) and those who said it was 'fairly important' (32%).

Among the 25-34 group, the figure for these two categories combined rises to 62%.

The survey also found that 87% of Catholics would like their children to be brought up in the faith. This will give no encouragement to those who want to diminish the church's role in education.

Clearly, there is good and bad news for the church in the survey. But a number of points can be made in the context of this survey: 1 Mass attendance is a crude yardstick by which to measure faith and belief. In 1973, 91% of people were attending mass weekly, but this figure undoubtedly reflected a level of social conformity which is no longer present.

Some older people may continue to attend mass as a matter of habit, but where younger people are attending it is much more a matter of choice.

2 Abuse scandals are not the main cause of falling practice rates but are a significant factor.

Last November, a survey by the Royal College of Surgeons found that 36% of people had been affected by the scandals in their religious practice. Only 18% of people, however, were affected in their mass attendance. 59% said they were not.

3 The media is more effective than the church in influencing social values.

Whereas high numbers of people agree with the church's doctrinal statements, (eg 71% believe in a life after death and 88% believe that Jesus was the Son of God), there is a lot of dissent on the big media issues 67% disagree that divorce is morally wrong (there may be a confusion between separation and divorce here) and only a narrow majority (45% v 39%) supports the church's teaching that homosexual acts are morally wrong.

This shift in attitudes probably reflects the influence of legislation and watchdog bodies like the Equality Authority. But it also illustrates the power of the media. Think Graham Norton, Fair City and almost every reality TV show: all are careful to 'normalise' homosexual behaviour and this would appear to be impacting on public opinion.

Abortion, however, appears to be the one issue where the church's view prevails 60% still believe it is immoral.

4 Priests remain popular.

Prime Time found that 49% of people still rate priests the role of priests as 'very important' well behind doctors, teachers and gardaí, but far ahead of politicians (22%) and journalists (20%).

Given the huge publicity surrounding clerical sexual abuse and the very negative portrayals of clergy by the entertainment industry, this figure is high. People's relationship with their local priests is probably the most important factor here.

5 The survey underestimates the strength of the church. Only 90% of the people interviewed described themselves as Catholic and, of these, many no longer participate in the Church.

Thus levels of mass attendance and support for church teaching among practicing Catholics is higher than the Prime Time figures suggest. The College of Surgeons researchers found a 63% mass attendance rate among practising Catholics last year, down 2% since 1997.

ALL of this doesn't mean the Catholic Church in Ireland should be complacent. But considering the relative confidence of the church in places like Italy where times are much leaner the depressed attitude of Irish church leadership, and many church members, simply isn't justified.

The media indulges this down-in-the- mouth approach by feeding us rather meaningless statistics on church attendance. In reality the church has a message that must challenge society in every generation. That many people will reject that message is not a crisis. It is normal.

What is remarkable, though, is how faith persists in Ireland, despite everything that has happened. But there are no guarantees for the future.

As Cardinal Ruini puts it, "if the church today is not missionary, it is fatally destined to become co-responsible for the progressive disappearance of the Christian faith."