IN A September 1994 article in this series I sketched the mood of "quiet contented apathy" which prevails among Irish Catholic males aged and over. Prompted by it, a year later a businessman suggested that to break new ground we should figure out why, at all ages worldwide, males now absent themselves more than ever from church functions.
We researched what we call the "AMC" (absent male Catholics) trend. Last Easter we sent the final report to our bishops. This article summarises its findings and refers to its implications for courageous and compassionate preaching in our church.
In our church males now absent themselves far more than females do. Sunday Mass counts find male/female ratios of around 20/80. At other functions such as prayer meetings and pilgrimages, the ratio is often around 10/90. Those who still go to confession are largely female.
Church and other surveys such as the Irish Times/MRBI poll earlier this month do not provide separate male/female figures. Taking the male/female ratio into account, however, that poll's finding that 35 per cent (50 per cent in Dublin) overall; skip Sunday Mass probably means that over half (three quarters in Dublin) of us males do so. It means the poll's finding that 78 per cent overall moralise unfettered by official church views appears to indicate that over 90 per cent of us males do so.
WHEN, therefore, we who choose to be tied to Catholic teaching mix socially, we must presume that at least nine out of 10 of males around us have chosen otherwise. They look upon us as a quaint dying breed, which we are. The chances of our grandchildren having fathers tied like us are now slim.
AMC research found that this approximately 90 per cent of males find their unfettered state most convenient. It lets them have more money and devote more time to sleep, money making and hobbies. It lets them experiment sexually and in other ways - including via drugs and dubious work practices - uninhibited by moral scruples. They feel hugely liberated.
They can be self indulgent and callous (i.e., not doing all one can to relieve human pain) with easy consciences. They can ridicule priests and bishops including satirising, them in the media - with the bogus daring of schoolboy types who tease (teachers who cannot punish them. Many now do so.
Why have so many Irish sons abandoned the Catholic Church of their fathers? AMC research assembled 30 reasons. It identified as the common root what it called "one handed preaching", Sunday after Sunday, for the past 30 years.
After the 1962-65 Vatican Council, our clergy, both "conservative" and "liberal", as if obeying a Vatican instruction, discarded 2,000 year old "two handed preaching". This had told us about, on the one hand next life joy for being goods and, on the other hand, next life pain for being bad. Since 1968 our preachers have more or less ceased to refer to the latter is like being asked to study or work well without being told that not doing so leads to penalties. It fails to answer our male "what difference does it make?" question. The wonder now is that any of us bother with Catholic functions and teachings at all.
The AMC final report told our bishops that, to reverse the trend, our preachers should tell us what our church's Catechism says about next life pain due to persistent this life deviance. However, as Mass homilies and bishops' statements confirm, one handed preaching continues.
AMC continues to grow.
It would take much courage now for our preachers to refer to our "on the other hand" next life benefits. It would still be popular to say that, people such as rapists, child molesters and those who abuse or otherwise injure vulnerable people are heading for mild to severe purgatory pain, and that its severe form is most painful.
It would be much less popular to say the same thing about masturbators, contraceptive users, abortionist (direct and indirect), fornicators, adulterers and so on. Enormous courage would be needed to says the same thing about those who make selfish use of our three most prized personal possessions time, knowledge and money.
That our Pope is aware of this is reflected in the following passage from his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope: "Preachers, catechists and teachers no longer have the courage to preach the threat of hell. And perhaps even those who listen to them have stopped being afraid of hell."
It takes much compassion to preach so courageously. Just because our preachers do not talk about it does not mean that next life pain does not await persistent deviants.
Compassion asks Catholic preaches to alert all creeds to that.
Compassion asks them also to say that deviance leads to this life pain too. The 90 per cent or so of males around may be unfettered by Catholic moral rules. But they are fettered by other ones, some of which have potential for horrific this life pain for them and their dependants for example, the rules which regulate cohabistation can have pleasant but also most unpleasant results for partners and children.
It is tempting to abandon such men to their fate. That would be horribly callous and, therefore, un Christian. We would be unwise to presume that we could do so with impunity. Besides, some are our own flesh and blood. We love them all. We have made mistakes. We are dying.
The remainder of this decade will decide much. Compassionate, courageous preachers can still harness male energies by reminding us that we cannot bypass pain both in this life and in our next one.
