It has by now become something of an article of faith to say the Pope's visit to Ireland 20 years ago this week was a failure. And indeed, if his intention then was to stem the "filthy modern tide" threatening to overwhelm the country, it is hard to disagree. He may have put starch in the resolve of the bishops and some of the faithful to resist the contraceptive culture, divorce and abortion, but it was to no avail.

And so he is being portrayed as some sort of latter-day King Canute, who took his sword down to the sea to do battle with the waves.

The semper fideles (always faithful) in the church say that was not his intention at all, that the visit was hastily planned, with just two months' notice, as a gesture to one of Rome's most loyal and long-suffering people. There was also the Northern question, which presented the Pope with an opportunity to distance the church from violence and from devout paramilitaries who proclaimed themselves Catholic.

From this perspective it cannot be argued that the visit was a success.

The crowds and euphoria that followed John Paul Superstar everywhere he went those days were simply the icing on a particularly sweet cake.

But there was Limerick. There he took on the sea, so to speak. In what was described at the time as "probably the most strict traditional homily of his visit to Ireland" he extolled the family, warned against contraception, condemned divorce, denounced abortion in the strongest terms, advised women that motherhood was their primary purpose in life, and pleaded for the support of a vocations culture.

Satan "the tempter, the adversary of Christ, will use all his might and all his deceptions to win Ireland for the world," he said. "Dear sons and daughters of Ireland, pray, pray not to be led into temptation . . . Today, you must keep the city and factory for God, as you have always kept the farm and the village for Him in the past," he pleaded.

"May Ireland always continue to give witness before the modern world to her traditional commitment to the sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage bond. May the Irish always support marriage, through personal commitment and through positive social and legal action," he said.

Even "the very possibility of divorce in the sphere of civil law makes stable and permanent marriage more difficult for everyone," he said. And marriage "must include openness to the gift of children," he said.

Abortion was "one of the abominable crimes". To attack unborn life at any moment after conception was "to undermine the whole moral order . . ." He prayed: "May Ireland never weaken in her witness, before Europe and before the whole world, to the dignity and sacredness of all human life, from conception until death."

On women he said: "May Irish mothers, young women and girls not listen to those who tell them that working at a secular job, succeeding in a secular profession, is more important than the vocation of giving life and caring for this life as a mother."

He appealed to Irish parents to continue to foster vocations in the home. "May increased opportunities for boys and girls never lessen your esteem for the privilege of having a son or daughter of yours selected by Christ and called by him to give all things and follow him," he said. Then he was gone.

Contraceptives became available here on prescription in 1979 itself, with condoms available to all over-18s from 1985. The introduction of divorce was held back in a 1986 referendum but became legal in 1995.

Abortion was banned in a 1983 referendum, but there was the X case in 1992. It was followed by the right-to-travel and information referendum, which was passed in 1992 also, and which allowed abortion where "the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother" was at risk.

Following the visit, vocations throughout Ireland rose from 506 in 1979 to 608 in 1980. Significantly perhaps, far more of the 1979 cohort went the distance, with 187 ordinations/professions in 1986 (when the seven-year preparation period was complete) compared to 171 in 1987. Meanwhile the number of religious on the island has fallen. In 1998 (figures for this year are not yet available) there were just 92.

The number of religious is also falling. In 1980 there were 10,901 priests, 16,361 nuns, and 1,878 brothers in Ireland. Last year there were 7,934 priests, 11,135 nuns, and 927 brothers. And they are getting older.

Just 5 per cent of priests are aged between 20 and 29, 18 per cent are between 30 and 39, 18 per cent also between 40 and 49, 21 per cent between 50 and 59, 20 per cent between 60 and 69, with 13 per cent aged between 70 and 79, and 5 per cent over 80.

In other words 59 per cent of Ireland's priests are over 50, while 77 per cent are over 40. There as many over 80 as there are aged 29 and under.

Another indicator of the failure of Irish Catholics to adhere to traditional values are the falling weekly Mass attendance figures. In 1981, 86 per cent went to Mass every Sunday. According to a 1998 poll for RTE's Prime Time programme that figure was down to 60 per cent. In some urban areas it is now as low as 6 per cent. As a people, semper fideles we are not.