Religious change `not dramatic', priests are told

Ireland remains more religious than other EU member-states despite recent setbacks suffered by the Catholic Church here, the National Conference of Priests of Ireland has been told. Prof Brigid Laffan, Jean Monnet professor of European politics at University College Dublin, said: "Ireland isn't secularising as rapidly as we might think it is . . . Yes, there are changes both in religious practice and religious behaviour, but these are not dramatic."

However, she said, recent studies on values in Europe indicated that Irish attitudes to the Catholic Church had changed considerably in a number of areas.

"The church in Ireland has lost its `moral monopoly' for one thing. Individual Catholics want to make up their own minds about matters of private sexual morality," she said.

"Increasingly, individuals see a distinction between the right of the church to comment on and contribute to debates on public policy, and the role of the legislators to legislate."

Furthermore, she said, "there is a decline of confidence in the ability of the church to provide solutions to a number of social problems".

Prof Laffan was giving the opening address at the NCPI annual conference at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin.

Comparing the State's economic convergence in the EU with its religious convergence, she said the two latest European Values Surveys, conducted in 1980 and 1990, provided "no overwhelming evidence of a pronounced secularisation occurring in Ireland".

For example, the proportion of people who said they took comfort from prayer actually increased from 80 per cent in 1980 to 82 per cent in 1990, while church attendances decreased only from 83 per cent to 81 per cent over the same period. The 1990 figures, however, failed to take into account a number of recent scandals. In relation to equity in Irish society, Prof Laffan warned that some groups "have been stranded in the process of economic development, seeing their relative position in the society deteriorating further".

"Farmers in marginal small holdings and unskilled workers are those who have fared worst," Prof Laffan said.

"If Irish society cannot tackle these problems when it is performing like a tiger economy, it never will," she added.