The Mass appeal of Second Chance Saturday

Secular music, alternative homilies, a good cafe - Róisín Ingle finds out why people are taking a second chance on faith at a Dublin church

It seems strange reviewing a Mass, but Second Chance Saturday, a Mass designed to encourage lapsed Catholics back into the fold, is crying out to be reviewed. There is the music, for one thing, and not just the kind of folksy, Cliff Richard-style Christian dirges you'd expect, although later in the evening there is some of that. Before the Mass starts, however, we are treated to a few contemporary songs played through loudspeakers, songs which would normally have no place in an Irish church of a Saturday evening.

There is no getting away from it. Sitting in the baroque splendour of St Andrew's Church in Westland Row, Dublin, listening to Joe Cocker sing about sorry being the hardest word feels more than a little odd. Then U2's One comes on and the atmosphere of reflection in the church deepens. After all, there could hardly be a more appropriate setting for lyrics such as: "Did you come here for forgiveness?/ Did you come to raise the dead?/ Did you come here to play Jesus/ To the lepers in your head?"

As you listen you begin to think that maybe the organisers of this Mass, held on the second Saturday of every month, are on to something.

"Each month the Mass has a different theme, and this month we chose forgiveness," explains Fr Fintan Gavin, a canon lawyer who works out of Archbishop's House in Drumcondra. It's the fifth Mass of its kind. "A group of us meet together to decide what the theme will be, based on the readings that week. It's the fourth anniversary of September 11th, so we felt forgiveness would be appropriate."

The congregation in the church on a Saturday night is usually made up of around 60 locals. Andrew O'Callaghan, an accountant in his 30s, was one of the regular Mass-goers who had the idea for Second Chance Saturday as a way to swell numbers and encourage those in the 25-40 age group who had gone away from the Catholic Church, for whatever reason, to come back.

"I was on holiday in America and I saw something similar at a church there," O'Callaghan says. "A few of us got together and shared ideas and we came up with this."

Tonight, while the church is not packed, it looks as though there are a few hundred people here: a woman with sparkly runners, lots of foreign worshippers, young girls dressed for a Saturday night out.

Áine Carvill, another organiser, left a wedding in Belfast to come down and take part in the Mass. It is her contribution that raises the event - which, apart from regular musical interludes and extended prayers of the faithful, follows the structure of most other Masses - to another level. After Communion she gets up and gives what could be described as an alternative homily, speaking eloquently about our struggle in daily life to forgive each other. It's surprisingly moving and given more poignancy by the fact that this glamorous young woman is preaching in what is usually an all-male domain.

"We wanted to create a welcoming atmosphere, a place that wouldn't be intimidating for those who hadn't been to Mass in a while, and we wanted lots of lay involvement," Carvill says.

There is a solid sense of community among the group that has gathered here, a sense of purpose and of hope among the congregation. After Mass at the Second Chance Cafe - a corridor off the main church - they get a chance to talk to each other over free tea and coffee and delicious hand-made cake and biscuits from a nearby Italian bakery.

This post-Mass hospitality is another draw for people such as Olivia O'Reilly (29), who has travelled from Co Galway to be here tonight, as she has for all the Second Chance Saturday Masses. Like many young Irish people she had stopped going to Mass, but when she heard about this initiative it struck a chord.

"I just liked that it was aimed at people like me. There is a vibrancy and energy at these Masses that I hadn't felt before - and it's a beautiful church," she says. "Normally in life you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression, but God gives you a second and third and fourth chance. I've found my faith has deepened since coming to the Masses and I think it's because what we give attention to grows."

Perhaps they are too shy or too busy to stay around after the Mass for coffee and cake, but it is harder to find genuine "second chancers" in the Second Chance Cafe than it is to speak to members of the Legion of Mary or daily Mass-goers.

One young woman speaks about World Youth Day with an evangelical fervour that suggests she has never in her life needed any encouragement to walk through the doors of a church. But for those who do need encouragement, the initiative seems to be working.

Joe (36), a financial consultant, believes the organisers have got it right.

"I have been out of the fold for a while and the thought of going back to Mass was intimidating," he says. "You have to make it both easy and interesting for people like me, and that's what they seem to have done. I was a bit dubious at first but there is a different dynamic at this Mass. I will be back."

The organisers couldn't wish for a better verdict.