Clare bucks the trend in church-going stakes

ANECDOTAL evidence suggests that Clare may not be seeing a pronounced rise in Church-going, despite a recent report, which found a noticeable jump in 2009 across the country.

A RedC poll conducted in November found that two-thirds of Irish people attend at least once a month, compared with an earlier ESRI study, which put the figure at 54%.
The RedC poll also found that weekly attendance had increased from 42% to 46%.
Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh said he wasn’t aware of any major change.
“It’s seldom I’d be in the same church two weeks in-a-row but I’d be surprised if there was any significant change. I have heard it said that there has been an increase but I would say it’s not significant. Whatever increase there has been, the news in the last couple of weeks will surely have an impact. A lot of people are angry and their trust in the Church is quite low at the moment.”
Shannon parish priest Father Tom Ryan said that there was evidence of a marginal increase at masses in the town. “There does seem to be a slight increase in the collections. In Shannon, around 35 to 40% of the people would be regular churchgoers but around 97% would be church-friendly. They wouldn’t go regularly but would be there occasionally.”
Father Ryan said that many people who don’t go to mass very regularly do visit local churches at other times. He also said that there is a new programme of preparation for First Communion, which includes a number of earlier preparatory masses.
However, Father Michael Sheedy of Kilrush said he hadn’t seen any noticeable change. “I haven’t seen it really. We usually take a count of the numbers attending every two years but I doubt there has been any increase. I would say that the numbers have held steady though.”
Father Pat Sexton is parish priest in Scariff and he is involved in the East Clare Cluster of parishes, which includes Tuamgraney/Bodyke, Mountshannon/Whitegate, Flagmount/Killanena, Feakle and Tulla.
“I’ve talked to the priests in the other parishes and they haven’t noticed an appreciable difference. The last time we did a count, it would have been about 45% attendance and I think it’s still around that.”
That last survey referred to by Father Sexton was carried out during the summer and winter of 2008.