I was just wondering about this other night when I was walking from Mulligans trying to avoid all the red-wigged Welsh people (and why was there a Welsh bloke in a kilt? The poor confused bastard) on Saturday night.
I don’t know anybody, and I mean anybody, who attends church on a Sunday. Not a single one. There isn’t a regular mass goer nor an irregular mass goer. Friends of friends are the same. They just don’t go to church. Maybe they still consider themselves catholic whereas I would be more atheistic in outlook but isn’t attendance at church vital to keep it going? Not just from the ‘lash a few quid in the basket’ way but fundamentally you need people to go to mass, to share the religious experience.
Given the fact our generation either doesn’t believe in the church or doesn’t take any active part in the church then the younger generations must be even more indifferent to it. Do the kids of today go to mass on a Sunday? We used to get tarted up and dragged along for many years, missing mass on a Sunday just wasn’t even considered. But now, nobody goes.
And as the years and generations go on even fewer people will attend. Obviously this is going to have a serious effect on the catholic church’s already diminished influence. We are becoming more and more secular and eventually the number of people who believe in God or the church is going to be really, really small.
But then what about the other religions? The muslims, who are tremendously devout and practice their religion …erm… religiously. Hindus. Jews. Zoroastrians. Will we ever see a day where the Catholic religion is in a minority? Vocations to the priesthood are falling each year – what if we reach a point where there aren’t any priests left and even then it doesn’t matter because nobody’s going to church?
The funny thing is though most kids still get christened, most weddings take place in churches and when we die we’ll be wheeled up in front of the altar while everyone cries over us. How do we reconcile our new secularism with traditional stuff like getting married and dying?
I don’t have any conclusions here, I was really just wondering about it.
Update: My concerns about the Catholic Church not reaching the youth of today are, it seems, unfounded. What else could possibly explain the fact that somebody appears to have ‘translated’ the bible into LOLCAT?
I remember being dragged along to mass as a kid back in the 70s and hating it. There’s only one member of my family who still attends, but he’s completely under the thumb of a dominant wife with a mother who’s nickname is “Holy Mary”.
I’d have been very happy not to get my kids christened, but it can still cause problems later on when you try to enrol them in school.
The Catholic Church’s grip is definitely loosening, but not quick enough for me.
This trend is well advanced here in Australia. We’ve stopped growing our own priests and now have to import them from places like the Phillipines and Sudan – places where joining the priesthood is still a positive career move.
Remember as little tackers we filled all those Lenten appeal boxes with coins donated “for the missions”? Well the missions are now getting us back.
Hey, and where’s 19 Major? We’ll watch out for him.
Whatever happened to fish on Fridays, and starving during Lent? Oh, the good old days.
Thank God they’re gone….
It’ll go full circle, like come back into fashion, maybe in 200 years time, after people have lost all faith and are scared of mr.smith from the matrix, they’ll cling to jebus once more!
Well the sooner it dies out the better too.
Also wish RTE would stop showing the Angelus, and also reporting church promotions in the news or interviewing local clergy when something newsworthy happens in a village. Do RTE still believe that all Irish people go running to their local priest as soon as they have a problem?
Religion has done this country more damage than good and should be treated as irrelevent in today’s society.
The church is run by a shower of celibate (sometimes) cunts as far as I’m concerned and play no part in my life and the sooner they have no influence in Irish society the better.
The Celtic church was much nicer and more fun than the Roman crap we got after the Synod of Whitby.
“…brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to” Sister Columquill of the 1st grade, whose “once a Catholic always a Catholic” still rings like a Gregorian tinnitus in the ears! Oh, no! Check out Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle,” where the Bokononists keep it all hidden under the table, rubbing feet. The church is no different than a pub. They come and go. Some stay for years. Then the old folks die out and the young folks are patronizing a different pub.
Maybe then people will start driving Jaguars instead.
Oh… I thought you said Cadillacs
Catholics? Don’t know anything about them.
I go to Mass every Sunday….
(Honestly, I do :) )
Have to agree though, the Synod of Whitby just fucked us over. completely. Used to have mixed houses and everything before that.
They say there are no atheists in a foxhole. I think that’s bullshit but there is something to the idea that when life gets very tough for people, many look to a God to help them out. Decreasingly so in the West where fewer people believe in a personal God who intervenes in their daily lives, but most of the world’s people still live under the sway of preachers in all their stripes. Even in America, an ostensibly secular country (I’ll wait while you finish laughing at that) – only 16% of people identify themselves as atheist. If you’re a young man in a big liberal city, will still follow up “I’m not religious” with “But I am very, very spiritual” in a nebulous, staring into the mid-distance thing – mostly to get laid, of course, but still, that’s still a social barometer of sorts.
I reckon it’ll take centuries, if not millennia, before there’s a religion-free world. I reckon too we might well destroy ourselves before there is. As long as people prefer the comfort of belief in an afterlife and that they’re somehow owed a meaning for life above what our reason tells us, there will be some little squawker minister somewhere feeding them fairy stories.
Besides, when people quit believing in religion, a lot of them just take up crystals or phrenology or something.
I reckon you make your own meaning in life.
I think Irish comedian Daragh O’Brion said it best.
“Once a catholic always a catholic, you could even run off and join the Taliban…..you would mearly be considered a bad catholic”
I hope for your sake it wasn’t the same kilt-wearing Welshman we came across, cos let’s just say we got a look at what religion he was in a way I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
there was a staunch taliban cell in Crumlin , Dublin in the 1950′s . If my Ma wanted to contact my Da in the Anchor Bar , she had to send me in as women were strictly forbidden. As for the church being like a pub ; if the church offered a welcome pint of Arthur ( the same quality as Mulligans in the day )and a pint to see you on your way to the local, they might get a few people in of a sunda.
Ask any Polish person what they do of a Sunday Morn, and they will all give you the same answer…
The churches will be refurbished as local nite clubs in every parish, and we’ll worship there…
Errr Twenty, what the hell were doing not drinking at Rons ? I mean, Mulligans? Does he know about this, and is your life insurance up to date?
That’s like cheating on your wife…..Shame on you.
I had to meet somebody and Mulligans was more handy than Ron’s.
I’ve never been a catholic, so can’t really answer your question; I am however a lapsed atheist, and am strongly considering converting to pastafarianism: http://www.venganza.org/
Catholics will never die out, not whilst there are “heathen” countries still to convert by missionaries. Even here, when I go to get a paper on Sunday the chapel seems to have a rake of people leaving on a Sunday.In fact if I was to arrange a fight between the COI and the Catholics in my town the Catholics would smash them by sheer weight of numbers. The Catholic church is so in touch with the modern world it has just released a new set of deadly sins to fit in with the modern world.
We are becoming more and more secular and eventually the number of people who believe in God or the church is going to be really, really small.
In fairness I think there’s a distinction to be made between people who believe in God and who don’t go to mass. I know plenty of people who believe in God but who have drifted away from Catholicism and/or Christianity. Belief in God may diminish (as it has) but its still fairly high.
It is funny though, how many people still baptize their kids, get married in churches, etc. when they don’t actually do the time on a Sunday.
I brought the old pair to rome for their 40th wedding anniversary.
It was scary to see the African & South American’s go all fundamental.
With that glassy-eye thousand yard ‘ I’ve got Jesus ‘ stare.
While Irish people have moved on to being ‘Western European Christians’*.. Catholics will be about for a long long time.
* no fear of pope, mass, or divorce… but require a church for burials.
Roosta – pretty sure I saw your pic from here (http://offthemeatrack.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/pop-culture-will-eat-itself/) in yesterday’s Trib…
Holy shit Twenty, i just saw it!
Can I sue them?
For millions, I’d imagine.
on closer inspection it’s not actually my photo but a reconstruction..
Milkybars are no longer on me
I don’t know anyone that goes to mass either, and I can’t think of anyone that knows anyone (under 40) that goes to mass either.
Lots of people surprise me by saying they believe in God, usually women for some reason. Maybe I’m being a bit arrogant here but it definitely negatively affects my opinion of them.
I think you will find Rock and Roll had a lot to do with it..
I saw loads of Welsh people in kilts on Saturday.
..and football Sam.
Twenty, the book’s turned up. That’s 22and a half pence you made out of me! It had better be good!
I go through these phases when I decide there has to be more meaning in life and start exploring religion. I always come back to Catholicism as I guess it’s what I was force fed for so long. Then I decide I’ll go to mass and see what’s up. I end up falling asleep during the sermon and wishing I’d stayed in bed and then become atheist again for another year or two before I go through it all over again. I think it’s the priests though.
I’ve always thought a reality show for crap priests would be great craic. Show them how crap they are, put them through public speaking and team building training etc… real American psychobabble crap… it’d be great!
I got my first erection at 12 o clock mass one sunday …
jeasus i remember it like yesterday.
U know when they all go up for the communion ..fuckit there was a load of young wans there at the time and low and behold I felt something in my pants.
I handnt a clue what the fuck it was. Next thing me father smacked down on him and says to me keep your thoughts on your prayers …
What about Big Brother – a reality TV show for wannabe priests. The winner gets €70,000 and the parish of Artane.
We go along to mass a reasonable amount. Mostly because we had to when we were kids, so ours should suffer it too :-) Mass was packed at our local church last Sunday.
The decline of the church has more to do with affluence, the well-publicised scandals, and education outside of the Catholic-run school system than anything else.
Personally, my faith is in Nintendo. Believe in Mario, and the Princess will be saved.
As a Welsh, I can assure you that kilts were added to our already-largely-made-up heritage in the 60s, and have caught on among an unthinking minority of weekend Welshmen. Indeed, we Welsh, during our time as Masters of the Alps, invented the trouser.
There is no more an authentic Welsh tartan than is there a decent-sized Irish harp.
Mass was packed at our local church last Sunday.
Really?
Do they still do loads of masses in the morning or have they cut back?
I go to Church every week. Its very enjoyable and relaxing. The surrounding are peaceful and the service is quick.
I only found out about this place two months ago and its on Jervis Street and is one of the nicest pubs in town.
Paisley 2 : themmuns 0 !
Had a great time in Dublin, is it always so quiet on a saturday and sunday night.
I too have found the church to be a valuable and rewarding experience. The fish and chips were lovely but it’s a mile long walk to get to the jax.
The little tower overlooking henry street is cool. Shame you can only fit 2 people in it….
They’ll never die out. When the time comes a covert band of mega-catholics will take on the Mullahs who will be running the country. Then, when time travel is invented, a modern day Jesus figure will emerge but will be relentlessly hunted down by Muslim terminators.
It’s going to be cool.
You’re right, Twenty. Organised religion no longer cuts it in an individualist society. Plus: the Catholic (and Anglican) church doesn’t meet the real needs of people’s souls – forgiveness and meaning – because it doesn’t point them to Jesus, it points them to itself.
On a totally different note………….
Has anyone, by chance, read Stephen King`s “Cell” ?
The premise of the story is about a virus that turns people into slobbering zombies, that is spread via a mobile phone ringtone !
(Sound familiar ? )
I can see the similarity between that plot and Halloween 3 but can anyone spot a link between your question and the rest of this thread?
Nope
Which is exactly why my first two words were,
“on a totally different note”.
That’s more than 2 words.
5 then.
(I have fat fingers)
And you think that you are now justified in digressing like Roger the Irrelevant? This is the Interweb not some smoking area outside a nightclub.
Have you read the boook PattheRat? that’s what he’s referring to…
perhaps those comments should be removed for plot-spoiling ….
People who use the word “Interweb” should be fucking well keelhauled.
Interweb ???
I was indeed referring to a plot in another book, which totally went over pat`s head.
Hughes & Hughes – 8.95
I like that word “interweb”. It makes me cleverer than others. And that didn’t go over my head I was just throwing people off the scent, because I’m clever.
Interweb is not a word. It doesn’t make you cleverer than anyone. This will probably go over your head, because you’re still a skinny dyke.
I’m watching you. At least ’til London Tim comes back.
As people get older i.e. as our generation gets older, our parents and friends will die and we will begin to fear our own demise. Since our parents will no longer be there to comfort and hug us we’ll resort to some loola (as bertie would day) religion. The cattlic church will always have customers. With all my pinko, liberal, lefty, commie thinking I’ll probably still end up shitting it and scurrying across the road to the church in 10 years time
Wankers say Interweb to pretend that they’re a bit arty and can’t quite remember the technical name for Internet as their head is too full of important information to bother naming it Internet like some sort of geek. It is the most forced pretence and surprisingly unoriginal as loads of people are at it now.
Yeah.
I go to mass every Sunday to rob the collection baskets.
And mass is bollocks too
I use Interweb as Homage to “Mrs Brady Old Lady” from Viz – who scurfs the Interweb.
My sister was at a dinner party which had a priest at it, and she told him that she didn’t believe in god or any religion.
He turned around to her and said “wait til someone in your family dies”.
He didn’t know that someone in my family had already died and it didn’t encourage anyone to believe in some bollocks religion.
Anyone who references Viz obviously lacks an intellect sharp enough to comment on a thread about religion.
“I’ve always thought a reality show for crap priests would be great craic. Show them how crap they are, ……”
Didn’t we have that a few years ago? Father Ted?
“Anyone who references Viz obviously lacks an intellect sharp enough to comment on a thread about religion.”
Viz is exceptionally intelligent and also extremely funny.
Maggot – fair enough.
Suck it up has beens.
Viz is the only newspaper I read. Religiously.
Havent read VIZ in years, the funniest was the letters page, or the personality test with multiple choice answers…one that stands out was “Are you a Darts Player?”
It’s all still there. Top Tips cracks me up. The Profanisaurus is seriously tedious at this stage though.
cuntybollocks
CINEMAGOERS: Have consideration for pirate DVD viewers by using the toilet before the film starts.
MEN: When listening to your favourite CD, simply turn up the sound to the volume you desire – then turn it down three notches. This saves your wife having to do it.
FATTIES. Avoid your torso being surreptitiously filmed and used in a BBC news report about Britain’s obesity problem by always wearing a T-shirt with ‘All Newsreaders are Cunts’ written on it.
http://www.catholic.ie/
and it’s not a hack. Domain name was bought by an atheist. You gotta love it!
Now thats funny…
This one still makes me laugh even though he is dead:
JEREMY BEADLE: When selling DVDs on your TV advert, hold the disks in your bigger hand so that they do not appear to be the size of laser disks.
DEVOUT Catholics. If the Lord has not yet made Himself visible, perhaps you are looking in the wrong place. Try paying more attention to the flaking paint on your walls, the rust on your frying pan or the mouldy stains on your carpet as these are the sort of places where He usually turns up.
Sorry but couldn’t resist this one:
Pass yourself off as Welsh by putting coal dust behind your fingernails and talking gibberish all the time, stopping occasionally to sing loudly, or set fire to someone else’s house
my “Now thats funny” comment was for supergroover, in case chuntzu thought that I thought that star Wars or whatever shite about the pope was funny…
Puerile, were you raped by a Welshman or what? Used to work for rugby weekends in a D4 hotel, welsh and scots were dead sound… the english were of course cunts, and the biggest, shittiest, wankiest of them all – The Irish Rugby Fans
Todays newsworthy item……..
There are now 7 new deadly sins.
Still trying to get through the first seven ffs !
In the interests of equality,
Pass youself of as Scots by holding a can of Special Brew,pissing yourself and talking gibberish all the time. Make your home in any London Train Station to complete the ruse
Manchester United fans. Save money on expensive new kits by simply strapping a large fake penis to your forehead. It is now clear to all, as to your allegiance.
And Finally:
Pass yourself as English by calling yourself Tim and being a Cunt
FATTIES. Avoid your torso being surreptitiously filmed and used in a BBC news report about Britain’s obesity problem by always wearing a T-shirt with ‘All Newsreaders are Cunts’ written on it.
heh
sorry but just one more…
OLD BIDDIES. Easter is not going to be early or late next year. So that will save you one crappy conversation.
The whole baptism thing has to do with getting children into schools.
An atheist I work with was really hacked off about getting his daughter baptised, but he had no choice as there was no other way he could get her into a school (the local educate together was already fully subscribed for the year she was due to start)
Ugly fuckers, put a picture of a tramp having a shit at the top of your blog. People will think it’s you.
I’m taking the fatties’ advice on board, it’s genius! :)
Apparently the Unitarian church is booked up for two years in advance for weddings now – and I think they do a pretty brisk trade on Sundays too. People do still want the ritual, they’ve just had enough of the dogma. The bad dogma.
The CC needs to get much more spiritual and flexible and compassionate if it wants to survive, I think. However, I think they’ll get by for a good few generations yet on people who don’t go to mass much but are precious about the birth/wedding/death ceremonies, and are therefore still card carrying members.
I don’t mean this in a bad way, Twenty, but just because there are people YOU don’t know, who don’t go to church or mass, doesn’t mean there aren’t other people who do. I don’t think Dubliners are representative of the wider church going public. I was in Drogheda for a Christening last year, and when the mass from earlier emptied out, the church spewed out a crown that just kept spilling and spilling from it’s doors as if they were going in round the back and coming out again.
Bus drivers. Pretend you’re an airline pilot by wedging your accelerator pedal down with a heavy book, securing the steering wheel with some old rope, and then strolling back along the bus chatting casually to the passengers.
….and I’m out of here
“Do they still do loads of masses in the morning or have they cut back?”
Not sure, we only go to 11.00
The Catholic World News in 2006 reported on Irish mass attendance:
The total of 48% attending Mass at least weekly represents a sharp drop from 1990, when a survey put the figure at 81%
And you cannot use a christening as an example, because anyone invited will go, even athiests like me.
Number 7+10, quite a large part of Ireland had already converted to the Roman model a good twenty years before Whitby.
Even before that again some Irish writers show a great loyalty to Rome and understand it as the head of the Church while still retaining their ‘Celtic’ roots.
Mass was only attended by such high numbers because Woodies and Harvey Norman werent open on Sundays and we were fuckin glad to spend an hour somewhere before the pubs opened (for another two hours) and then it was home for spuds and maybe a half hour of ski sunday before back for a game of pool and a few more pints of Harp.
“Mass burial sites uncovered all across Ireland” Jaysus, Mary and Paedo Priests !
Where is Tim from London. Why doesn’t he come back and take some abuse about his team getting beaten by Scotland over the weekend. (I hope to fuck we beat them next Saturday)
you will all be looking for priests or some form of reconciliation on your death beds
Ahh people are like sheep really. When everything is going well and there’s lots of money and food in their belly, people don’t need god, even the Catholic one. But when the shit hits the fan and money and particularly food gets scarce with lots of pestilence around, then you would see the churches field to the roof! That’s the way it has been for thousands of years. I can see a day coming when global warming gets officially classified as god’s retribution for a sinful folk, particularly those Irish gits!
I am the count and I love to count, one hundreddddddd!!!! ha ha ha!
What I notice in our parish is that most of the parishioners are on the older side (preparing to meet their maker). There’s a school, too, though, so I’ve never quite understood why I don’t see more children there of a Sunday.
Typically, the progression I see is as follows: first engaged couples….then a woman with a couple of children without a husband….much less often a whole family with mother and father and maybe even a grandparent….then there are the older people (singly or in couples).
Big turnouts for Ash Wednesday, Easter, and Christmas…..so much so that you have to remember to get there early or you’ll have to stand in the back. Other times no problem finding a place to sit.
Many Indian priests, too, a new one each year, it seems, but when I was younger they were all Irish-American.
I remember, when I did CCD (religous instruction for those children in public school) some parents would drop their children off for the children’s Mass (after which we would have an hour of religious instruction–preparation for communion/confirmation) but not bother attending themselves.
If you want your children to attend the local parochial school (where there is generally a lower risk of getting stabbed by a fellow pupil than in some of our public schools) you have to be registered in the parish and, in some cases, tithe a certain percentage of your income–or donate your time, generously–and participate in all the fundraising/raffles.
You don’t get a break, anymore, either, with multiple enrollments (tuition break for the third or fourth child). Many of those enrolled aren’t even Catholic anymore….their parents just want to make sure their child is in a safe environment where they will graduate knowing how to read and write and perhaps even gain entrance to a decent prep school/college.
Also….another question might be….who goes to confession anymore?? I see practically the whole congregation go up for communion but it’s the same fifteen people for confession every Saturday afternoon (can we all really be that spotless???). I don’t think so!!!!
For some, especially men, it’s “hatched, matched, despatched.” Perhaps, for women, it provides more of a social function–and our parish does a good bit of social outreach–collecting food and clothing for those who need it–so I think that must be a good thing.
keano said:
“you will all be looking for priests or some form of reconciliation on your death beds”
Keano ,you absolute cunt, I for one will not be looking for reconciliation.
I want to be shot out of a cannon on my deathbed.
I’ve had to live in England for what seems like centuries. I always thought it had a monopoly on cunts. Until now.