New polling has revealed a significant fall in Catholics attending Sunday masses in Ireland, triggered by the impact of Church lockdowns during Covid.
Polling company Amárach Research, in a newly conducted survey, found that 41% of Catholics who attended Sunday mass before Covid no longer do so – up from 25% last year.
Amárach ran the survey as part of a series on change in Ireland over the past 25 years.
Respondents were asked: “If you are Roman Catholic, were you a regular Mass goer before the Covid pandemic and [before] Churches were closed for the first time?”
They were then asked “Are you going to Mass regularly again now that the Churches have reopened?”
While the polling underlined the negative repercussions of Covid lockdowns for the faithful, the numbers returning to Sunday mass have risen over the last year.
Polling of 1,500 adults in Ireland found that 59% of Catholics who went to weekly mass before Covid-19 struck have now returned to attending church regularly. This is up 47% from just 12 months ago.
However, a huge number of people have still not returned. 24 per cent of the 1,500 respondents were regular mass goers before the pandemic, however when asked if they had returned to Mass, 59 per cent answered ‘yes,’ while 41 per cent said ‘no’.
As per the latest census undertaken in 2016, 78 per cent of the population still identify as Catholic.
Among those surveyed, 25 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women said they attended Mass “regularly” before the onset of Covid and associated lockdowns.
WEAKENING OF THE FAITH
The survey also found a weakening of the faith among Catholics. Among the cohort who used to attend mass regularly but had not returned, 31 per cent said their faith “isn’t’ as strong” since the Covid pandemic. 37 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women reported feeling like their faith had decreased.
The convenience of at-home streaming of obligatory Sunday mass for Catholics, which was permitted during Covid lockdowns, also seems to have had an impact, with 18 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women saying they “prefer” to watch Mass online or on TV.
When asked why they no longer attend Mass, of the Catholics, 20 per cent of men and 39 per cent of women said it was because they “still have concerns about Covid-19”.
Overall, 2 per cent of respondents said they didn’t attend because wearing masks was off-putting, while 16 per cent (13 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women) said they hadn’t returned due to health issues.
Among those under 35, 11 per cent of respondents said they were “previous” mass-goers, while this figure rose to 20 per cent for those aged 35 to 44 years old.
18 per cent of people aged 45-54 said they previously attended Mass, while this rose to 40 per cent among the over-55s.
Respondents were also asked about Pope Francis, with 32 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women saying they were “satisfied” with his leadership. When asked if they had taken part in the Synodal Pathway launched in 2021 by the Irish Catholic Bishops, a staggering 88 per cent of respondents (90 per cent of men and 88 per cent of women) said they had not taken part in the Synod.
ATTITUDES TO RELIGION
Of the 1,500 surveyed by the polling company, 52 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women reported a belief in God – just 34 per cent of men and 45 per cent of women however, said they believed in heaven. Overall, 30 per cent of men and women surveyed said they believed in sin.
When they were asked if they believed in the devil, 19 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women said they did. 41 per cent of respondents said they believed in life after death, while 44 per cent believed in the concept of a soul. 17 per cent said they believed in reincarnation
Of all respondents, just 12 per cent of men and 11 per cent of women said they considered themselves religious, while 36 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women said they considered themselves to be neither religious nor spiritual.
When asked if they believed Ireland has “lost her soul,” 40 per cent of respondents agreed.
The tide has long been turning in Ireland with regards to the number of people practising religion. In the 1950s and 60s, it was estimated that up to 90 per cent of Catholics attended weekly Mass; however, by 2021, the numbers of Catholics attending Mass on a weekly basis had dropped to around 30 per cent, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Catholic priests.
In September 2020, groups including The Iona Institute warned that lockdowns could have a significant impact on Mass attendance. Churches were deemed “unnecessary” in March 2020 when Ireland recorded its first cases of Covid, and were shut for three months. While Masses resumed at the end of June 2020, there continued to be restrictions on the numbers of people permitted to attend.
Polling from Amárach in 2020 predicted that many Catholics would not return post-restrictions. A poll from September 2020 found that out of a poll of 1,000 people, 4 per cent of Mass-goers didn’t plan to return, while 19 per cent said they were “unsure”.
“Many Catholics have already returned to regular Mass-going, and many more wish to do so. But as we can see, it is also likely that a significant minority will not return without a very significant outreach from the Church,” The Iona Institute, which commissioned the 2020 poll, said at the time.
That polling found just 27 percent of the people in Ireland were attending Mass regularly, and of those, only 36 percent had returned to Mass on a regular basis.