A new study by the Iona Institute has found that:
46% of Catholics who were regular Mass goers pre pandemic have since returned
Of those who have not yet returned, 62% have said that it is because of fear
20% said that they do not know if they will return
4% said that they will not return
Commenting on the poll, which was a sample of 1,000 people, Iona’s David Quinn commented:
Church leaders will be encouraged that almost half of Catholics who were attending Mass regularly before the start of the pandemic have returned. In many cases, this is about the maximum a given church can accommodate because of social distancing requirements.
What is noteworthy, however, is among those who have not returned, fear of Covid is still the main driving force even though almost every Mass-goer will be fully vaccinated by now, whereas last year, no-one was vaccinated. Clearly some work needs to be done both by the Churches and public health authorities to reduce the fear factor to a more reasonable level.
Church leaders will also be concerned that around a quarter of those who were coming to Mass regularly before the pandemic either won’t be back, or don’t know if they will. Is this because they have fallen out of the habit, or they have become permanently nervous of crowds? One way or the other, there will have to be an outreach to this group
Generally speaking, these are not numbers, especially with Ireland having endured Western Europe’s most severe lockdown and one of the world’s most aggressive crackdowns on religion during the pandemic. Gardai were seen entering churches, there were newspaper ‘journalists’ monitoring churches on webcams to spot if 5 extra people attended funerals and there was even the case of Fr. PJ Hughers, where Gardai surrounded his village to stop people from attending Mass. These have all played large psychological deterrents to a swift return to Mass.
It might be interesting to see if the recent bravery from the bishops in standing up to the government, who arbitrarily changed Covid rules today after being caught partying hard with dozens at a time across hotels in Dublin, will have an impact upon increasing numbers of those attending Mass.
He said that he ‘admired’ Pope Benedict XVI.