The recent Irish Catholic bishops’ document, Turning the Tide, has been the subject of extensive coverage, particularly regarding the finding that religious practice is significantly higher in Northern Ireland than in the Republic. The report draws extensively on the European Social Survey (ESS).
An aspect that has received less attention is the finding that 18 per cent of the Republic’s Catholics were born elsewhere, and that this has been a significant factor in boosting church attendance at a time of overall decline.
The report states: “It might be thought that Ireland’s relative Catholic strength is at least partially due to recent immigration – as it certainly is, for example, in Britain. Immigration has certainly contributed significantly to the Irish Catholic population. For example, in ESS 2002/3, 6 per cent of those identifying as Catholic in Ireland said they were born outside of the country. By ESS 2023/24, that figure had grown to 18 per cent. However, foreign-born Irish Catholics are not notably more or less practising than their home-grown co-religionists.”
There are, of course, significant differences in church attendance between different groups of immigrants. As one would expect, attendance is relatively low among those from many European countries, while virtually universal among Catholics from India, the Philippines, Nigeria and other African countries, as well as from countries in Latin America.
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Like Irish migrants in Britain, the United States and other countries down the years, the Catholic Church provides both a spiritual base and a means of support for those settling in new countries. It’s a similar story in English Catholic parishes, where often the bulk of young parishioners are the children of migrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The report’s findings tally with the census figures, which show that the majority of immigrants in the Republic are either Catholics or of other Christian denominations, with only about 5 per cent being Muslim and an even smaller percentage of other faiths, such as Hindus and Sikhs.
It’s a reality that many Irish Catholics seem unaware of, despite the presence of growing numbers of priests from overseas. Possibly, however, practising Catholics may be more aware of it than the many “cultural Catholics”.
The growing immigrant Catholic population is most visibly reflected in Corpus Christi and Marian processions, often reviving or strengthening customs seen as associated with the Ireland of the past but given a new life by recent arrivals. Far from threatening the old culture, as xenophobes so often suggest, they are keeping it alive.
Another implication has been the emergence in Ireland of branches of the eastern rite churches in communion with Rome. Previously, virtually all Catholics in Ireland followed the Latin rite, so called because, before the Vatican II changes, Mass was said in Latin.
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Most notable among these is the Syro-Malabar rite, associated mainly with Indians from the Kerala province, many of them health service workers, who claim their spiritual roots go back to St Thomas the Apostle evangelising their country.
A reflection on how best to integrate such migrants into Catholic life in Ireland was given recently by Deacon Lazarus Gidolf of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore in an article for the Irish Catholic newspaper.
Reflecting on his experiences of integration in Clonmel, he warns against separate Masses for different groups: “The Catholic Church is not one rite but many. It is the church of Rome, Antioch and the east; the church of St Patrick and St Thomas the Apostle. When eastern and western Catholics collaborate, parish choirs become richer, youth ministry becomes more active, and communities begin to look more like the universal church than any one group’s expression of it. You can see traces of this when new families volunteer for ministries without waiting to be asked, or when parish events suddenly have a wider spread of dishes, music and stories.”
This greater variety of Irish Christianity overall also has implications for ecumenical activities – it’s no longer just about the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches but also the Orthodox and the Pentecostals.
With the overall Catholic population down to 69 per cent (compared to more than 93 per cent in 1971) and overall Catholic numbers declining, it is certain that the role of immigrants in keeping the Catholic Church alive in years to come will be vital.
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Just as it has long been said that the definition of a Dubliner is the son or daughter of someone from Roscommon or Offaly, it may be that an Irish Catholic may be defined in the future as the son or daughter of someone from Manila or Lagos or the Keralan city of Thiruvananthapuram.
Declan McSweeney is from Co Offaly but has lived in England many years. He is a journalist with a particular interest in religious affairs
