Church-going is a tedious business — and it is also hard on the knees

WHY is the Irish Catholic Church so determined to make church-going such an uncomfortable experience.

I had time to dwell on this question on the couple of occasions over the last few weeks when, for seasonal ceremonies and weddings, I attended a number of masses.

The 45 minutes or so which the church expects us to spend at mass must be among the most tedious and physically challenging many of us now spend outside of work hours. Why is it that what is supposed to be a weekly celebration of religion and community must take place so often in large, cold buildings where we are required to sit on uncushioned benches and kneel for sustained periods on bare wood?

I can hear howls of "it not supposed to be comfortable" and "it should be physically demanding," "mass is not a social event, or party" but why should going to mass not be physically comfortable as well as spiritually uplifting?

I have yet to find any biblical or canonical authority for the proposition that mass should be boring and uncomfortable. In fact it is worth remembering that the first mass, which the Catholics' weekly visit to church is designed to depict and replicate, actually took place at the Last Supper. This event was no dull penitential gathering, but actually took place during the first century's equivalent of a four-course meal, held on a balmy Mediterranean night in a venue of relative comfort for the time.

When Christ said "do this in memory of me," he didn't require that austerities, even by first century standards, be observed in order authentically to repeat the sacrament.

On the contrary all the indications are that Jesus was ever conscious of the comforts of those who had gathered to hear him teach. It was Jesus himself who, fearing that followers might go home hungry, performed a miracle with a dozen or so bread loaves and fishes in order to feed thousands.

Jesus was an innovative and interesting teacher. Of particular significance was his adoption of the communication tool of the parable.

This storytelling approach to religious teaching was revolutionary for its time and Jesus adopted it because it was accessible to a wide audience. It is arguable that if the Catholic Church was to maintain Jesus's own radicalism in adopting new communication methods, then MTV style music videos would be the main feature of the weekly liturgy and not the long priestly monologues and repetitive congregation responses to which we are subjected. (Why is it that it is only priests, self-indulgent politicians and bad college lecturers who think that it is still acceptable to subject audiences to lengthy monotonous speeches?)

Of all of the organisations or institutions that seek our participation, or at least attendance on a weekly basis, the Catholic Church is the only one which appears to have made no effort to improve the facilities for those who attend. The improved facilities for patrons at sports venues throughout the country stand in stark comparison to the way that mass-goers are still treated.

In this day and age when the overwhelming majority of homes are equipped with central heating, carpet, and comfortable seating, one wonders whether the church really wishes to

survive in modern western societies while it continues to use so many outdated venues and means of communication in teaching and inspiring its flock.

Of course some churchmen will suggest that there is something more pure or religious in the harsh facilities. It is a suggestion similar to the old argument that students need to learn in dull classrooms and uncomfortable benches so they can concentrate on what the teachers is saying.

However, apart from the congregations' pews, most Catholic churches are not austere places. The altars and other areas of many Catholic churches are adorned with trappings which easily distract mass-goers from the reading of the scripture and certainly from some of the sermons. Statues, lavish paintings and stained-glass windows are justified as somehow in themselves representing adorations of God. However, I for one find it hard to believe that these majestic and ornate buildings would flatter the biblical God. He cannot in particular feel adored by the fact that they are increasingly half empty on Sundays.

I have never had occasion to visit a synagogue. However, if the synagogues in movies and on TV depict them accurately then the Jewish communities have adopted a more realistic approach. Synagogues have tiered, armchair-like seating, in cinema-like buildings.

Whatever theological differences there may be between the Judaist and Roman Catholic tradition I presume it is not being argued that Jews are less close to God because they gather and worship in more comfortable surroundings. Concerns for the creature comforts of mass-goers may seem somewhat insignificant in the context of the wider challenges which the Catholic Church in Ireland faces but my point is a wider one.

THE handling of the scandal of clerical child abuse remains the great hole in the integrity of the Irish Catholic Church. These scandals have also been the reason or at least the stated reason why many Irish Catholics no longer go to mass. However the clerical abuse controversy has overshadowed deeper, more persistent difficulties arising from the church's wholesale detachment from modern western life. The inability of the Irish Catholic Church to adapt and at times even to see the need to adapt is much of its problem.

This indifference is a product of ecclesiastical bureaucracy which has shaped the Catholic Church often in a manner not necessarily consistent with Jesus's original message. In fact, the most controversial aspects of modern church structure (clerical celibacy, male only clergy, hierarchical authority) have been devised and maintained by this man-ordered bureaucracy rather than any God-ordered laws.

It amounts to an indifference not just to the comforts but to the needs and realities of the lives of those who choose to worship within it.

It was once a binding rule and tradition of the church that mass had to be said in Latin. Even to many conservative churchmen such a requirement would now seem absurd. Sadly, the movement towards modernisation begun by Pope John XXIII has stalled even altar girls are still frowned on.

In the porch of one of the churches I visited last week I came across a copy of the Irish Catholic newspaper. It included a provocative piece by Fr Martin Tierney in which he compared the task faced by the Irish dioceses currently devising new pastoral plans with that faced by all the king's horses and all the king's men when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall.

At least, Fr Tierney wrote, Humpty Dumpty's fall was a sudden and violent demise. By comparison the Catholic Church in Ireland has faced a gradual collapse over the last 25 years. In that time it has sat on its hands and this makes the task of restoration and renewal all the harder.