While the number of people involved in the life of the Church is not as big as it once was, those who choose to be involved are “deeply committed and passionate about their faith,” said Oranmore parish priest, Fr Diarmuid Hogan.
“I think it is the experience of my colleagues, and it is certainly my experience,” the priest said. “Those who now play an active role in parish life or even are just regular participants at Mass tend to be more committed and engaged than in times gone by.”
Fr Hogan said that in past decades, people would attend Mass every Sunday, but many would do so because it was expected of them. “To not be [in the pew] was an act of rebellion and defiance; it was much easier to be there than not to be there,” he said. In those moments, the Liturgy would be “observed and endured rather than appreciated
and celebrated.”
However, the priest said, “In recent years, when it is much more challenging to be there than not to be there, there can be significantly more energy and engagement in Sunday worship.”
He believes the younger generation has “a real desire” for truth-telling and authenticity. “They yearn for it,” he said. Young people have a true passion for social justice, respect for nature and Creation, Fr Hogan said.
Young people “have an instinctive empathy for the downtrodden, the excluded, the prisoner and the exiled… The only international institution that unambiguously echoes and affirms this passion for the truth and for justice is
the Church.
“Therefore, not in vast numbers but still in a very meaningful way, young people are finding themselves at home and comfortable in the church in a way their parents or grandparents might have not.” Fr Hogan added, “Those who participate do so in freedom and with goodwill. They don’t carry with them the real or imagined scars of Ireland’s past, and they bring hope and optimism to all of us for the remainder of this century and even for the start of the next.”
