NOT YOUR FATHER'S IRISH CATHOLIC CHURCH

When Pope Francis visits Ireland this summer (August 25-26), he  will be welcomed by President Michael D Higgins.

Some think that is the only welcome the Pope will receive.

But the Holy Father will be greeted by a Church which, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the President and host of the World Meeting of Families,is struggling “to find a new place in Irish society and culture - a very different one from the dominant one it held in the past”.

With evolving views on divorce, same-sex marriage and abortion, analysts suggest Ireland has changed utterly since John Paul II’s visit in 1979.

Since then, the Catholic Church has suffered critical setbacks following sex scandals, sordid revelations of clerical abuse and reports on how some within the Church hierarchy covered up such stories and failed to report Priests who were child abusers to the authorities.

In recent weeks, the treatment meted out to women in mother-and-baby homes run by Women Religious for unmarried pregnant women has been in the spotlight.

The story of the Magdalene laundries - Catholic-run workhouses where 10,000 women and girls were forced to do unpaid, manual labour between 1922 and 1996 - prompted a state apology by Irish President Michael D Higgins.

There have also been allegations of forced adoptions, in some cases in exchange for money from rich Catholic Irish-Americans.

The 2016 Census put the number of self-described Catholics at 3.73m - about 78% of the population.

Yet, weekly Mass attendance fell from 63% in 2002 to 48% in 2010, according to the Church's most recent available statistics, with less than a quarter of 26-to-34-year-olds attending Mass weekly. 

Archbishop Martin has said that in some parishes, only 2% of people went to Mass.

Certainly, the love affair that existed between the Church and the people of Ireland is over for the present.  Whether that relationship can ever be rekindled will depend largely on the Pope’s message to once-devout Irish Catholics during his visit.

One thing’s for certain:  this is not your Irish Catholic father’s Church anymore!