Census 2022: 10% reduction in Roman Catholic numbers

It's not that they want their children to be indoctrinated that they are choosing Catholic schools. It is because Catholic schools are often better, and most often non-fee paying. Why are these schools often better? - well is certainly is not because they are good at teaching transubstantiation.

Consider that the parents/guardians are going out of their way to specifically select these schools and are not just going for the local comp. This is my experience of the UK system anyway.

Ireland is totally different.

The number of religious schools should match the census figures, so we need to reduce catholic schools by the appropriate percent. Even better, remove religious indoctrination entirely from schools. Why should non-religious pupils have to put up with the annual farce of confirmation/communions, and all the other ad-hoc religious stuff.

You don't have the right to disagree, but disagree and you just have to confess your sins and lo behold all is forgiven and you are still a Catholic.

Honestly the idea that all these casual mass goers or even the christmas-Easter heads are deemed persona non grata to the church is delusional. The Catholic church will bend the rules to get as many people as it can listed as Catholic.

Most Irish "Catholics" wouldn't even know that they've committed a "sin" to confess!

I wonder how many of them sought the foregiveness of the confessional after voting to legalise abortion or gay marriage?

If you examine the beliefs of most Irish "Catholics" that actually believe in a deity, they're actually some strand or other of Protestant. Don't tell them as much though, the faithful don't tend to like facts and our history has most of them rather averse to the "P word".

Which of those schools that you are referring to are better because they are catholic ?

I think one part of the problem, is that there are no (or very few) Catholic schools, only catholic administered ones. The situation is now that the church wants the state to fund,maintain and in some cases build these schools.

What the church should be doing is paying its own way. Then is can indoctrinate those or at least the children of those who want it.

What the church should be doing is paying its own way. Then is can indoctrinate those or at least the children of those who want it.

The State wouldn’t want that though, because it would mean that children in some schools really would receive a far superior education to others, whereas funding schools which deliver the national curriculum somewhat mitigates that outcome. There are schools which don’t deliver the national curriculum, and they also receive no funding from the State. Then there are home schooling networks around the country and they provide a different form of education again. It’s just serves the common good better if the State pays its own way, and patrons deliver education in public schools in accordance with their own ethos.

Yeah my parents are in their 70s and go every week. They say that it's probably 10-20% full most weeks with the congregation almost exclusively being people of their age cohort. The only younger adults there tend to be from places like Poland or the Philippines.

When I was last regularly attending, in the 90s, it was standing room only at the 12.15 mass and there were 3 masses on a Sunday instead of the 2 they are down to now. In my case it was purely a social thing. All my friends went so you would have the craic afterwards walking home talking about whatever happened the night before. There was also an element of going because your parents expected you to as well. Once we got older we all stopped going. I think a lot of people around Ireland would have similar stories.

I'm not sure what happens in 20 years when the current core of mass goers (and a lot of the clergy) are dead. The empty gesture of people ticking a box in a census form isn't going to fly when it comes to keeping churches open up and down the country. They need people to actually show up week in and week out.

That just means you're a "bad Catholic". If you abide by most of the rituals, you are a Catholic to some extent imo.

That's the crux of it. Whether you tick the box or not, churches are closing and priests are stretched well beyond their own parish.

I've been to more humanist weddings than religious ones and I've a feeling that numbers would drop sharply if you took Communion and Confirmation prep out of schools.

There are less than a dozen new Irish priests ordained each year, so we're importing them from Africa.

I said it at the time of the census,there should be a "non practicing" option.

Most folk have probably done the babtism,communion, confirmation and would automatically say Catholic if asked and are more accurate than saying "no religion".

The "no religion" questions didn't differentiate between those with no actual religion and non practicing. It was very vague. Intentionally or not,who knows.