The Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, has warned that it was possible that in one generation a faith culture could be lost in Dublin.
"The level of understanding of the faith is in many cases very low. Many young people are totally unchurched. In one generation they will have lost any faith culture," he said.
He was speaking last night in Dublin's Clonliffe College to 130 representatives of lay and ordained parish leadership teams from 39 parishes in north Dublin. The meeting was organised by the Dublin diocese's Parish Development and Renewal, as part of a three-year plan to explore the issue of "clustering" parishes together.
"Parishes will have to reach out rather than expect that a community will emerge out of a sense of duty, much less than obligation. The indications are that the religious sense of the people of Dublin diocese is still deep. Census figures show that religious affiliation is high by European standards. People want their children to receive a Catholic education. Daily Mass attendance is extraordinarily high, especially at certain moments in the liturgical year," he said.
"But there are other indications which show us that regular Mass attendance has dropped, and in some Dublin parishes that drop is dramatic. People have decided that regular attendance at Mass is not on their ordinary agenda.
"They will flock to funerals and special liturgical occasions. But even on those occasions it is obvious that their understanding of the sacred mysteries is very vague and that they are often impressed by some outward gesture rather than by the real essence of what is being celebrated."
He said that "the parishes in Dublin where the faith is most vibrant are those parishes where there has been broad participation for years. The parishes which have remained closed in on themselves, where there is no conversation, not even among priests, are those where the signs of tiredness are patently evident."
He asked how "real communities in which faith is formed and lived, in which people pray and worship, in which the love of Jesus is practised and which reaches out to all", could be established. He had "no concrete model, because there is no one-size-fits-all model".