Irish Examiner View: Saying yes to secular option as Catholic marriages fall to 43.6%

And all the while life continues. Our world is, almost by the day, changing dramatically because of the pandemic. Some suggest unalterably though that, despite the best of intentions and very good evidence demanding change, remains to be seen. The pandemic demands nearly all of our attention, resolve and energy — resources too — but life as we knew it continues almost in parallel. The greater challenge of climate collapse persists, social evolution continues.

Central Statistics Office figures confirm a scale of change in our behaviour that may not yet be fully recognised is accelerating. Its implications have yet to ripple across other behaviours though that change can hardly be too far away.

Non-religious weddings are approaching parity with those celebrated in Catholic churches. Last year, Catholic ceremonies accounted for 43.6% of marriages while 41% of couples opted for either a civil or humanist ceremony. The non-Catholic ratio is up from 38.8% in 2018, 37% in 2017, and 35% in 2016. Just 30 years ago, in 1990, non-religious marriages accounted for just 3.7%. Should that trend continue, in another 30 years a church wedding of any denomination may be the exception rather than the norm.

The figures may, in a colder reality, be even starker for those who champion traditional Catholic disciplines and institutions as more and more couples are very happy to build a family without a ceremony of any kind.