Mags GarganJust 10% of Massgoers receive bishops’ letter on marriage
Just 10% of weekly Massgoers have received a copy of the Church’s pastoral letter which aims to inform Catholics of the Church’s stance on marriage before this year’s referendum on same-sex marriage.
The Irish Catholic has established that just 170,000 copies of The Meaning of Marriage were distributed to parishes in the Republic, despite the fact that the bishops expressed the hope that all Catholics would read the document before voting.
The latest statistics show that more than 1.75 million Catholics in the Republic attend Mass weekly, which means that just one copy of the 16-page document was distributed for every 10 parishioners.
Campaigner David Quinn has warned that the “vast majority” of weekly Massgoers “are almost certainly unaware that the leaflet even exists. This will have to be rectified”.
He said Church leaders must act quickly to ensure that “every Massgoer, or at least every Massgoing family, will receive one”.
According to Mr Quinn, director of The Iona Institute and a leading voice in the campaign against the redefinition of marriage, there are many parishes “where the priest gently, and in a low-key way, mentioned the leaflet to Massgoers and suggested they bring one home with them to read. This was enough to cause the parishes in question to run out of their supplies. So demand for the leaflets can be easily generated, but parishes need to have enough leaflets to ensure every Massgoing household in the parish receives one”.
Serious
Priests who spoke to The Irish Catholic this week expressed dismay at the limited number of leaflets circulated, and some questioned whether Church leaders were serious about the debate on same-sex marriage.
But other priests expressed concern that a major campaign by the Church on the issue could alienate people.
One priest said he had received 150 pastoral letters for four churches with several hundred Massgoers in each. “I wonder if the bishops are really serious about this debate on the redefinition of marriage,” he said.
Another Dublin-based priest said his parish, which had received fewer than 100 copies, had run out of the document after just one Mass. “I’m fairly dismayed to be honest,” he said, “I’m not sure if it’s a serious attempt or not.”
However, a number of priests said the issue had to be approached sensitively by the Church. “If we have gay people in the congregation, they could well feel excluded if we preach about the issue,” one said. Another expressed reservations and insisted: “We first have to meet gay people with love, not a rule book.”
Another priest said he felt the Church had to “preach the truth with love…that means being clear with people that we cannot support this radical redefinition of marriage”.
Languages
A spokesperson for the Catholic Communications Office said that each diocese “ordered its own number of copies of The Meaning of Marriage” and the dioceses were then distributing the pastoral statement to parishes, but the document was also available online in three languages.
The Archdiocese of Dublin, the biggest diocese in the country with a Catholic population of more than 1.1 million, ordered just 20,000 copies of the document. According to a spokesperson, the archdiocese initially ordered 100 copies per parish and “following on from that, parishes then order extra copies when they need them”. However, while Dublin is the largest diocese by population, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has admitted that, in the city centre, “Mass attendance in more than half of the parishes is at 5% and even lower”.
Spearheading the launch of The Meaning of Marriage in December, Bishop Liam MacDaid said the document was being made available to parishioners across the country. He said the bishops “wish and encourage everyone to read carefully this pastoral statement so as to be better informed in preparation for the debate which will inevitably unfold during the coming referendum”.
The referendum on same-sex marriage is expected to be held in early May. Opinion polls indicate that a majority of Irish people will vote to amend the Constitution to legalise same-sex marriage, with 71% saying they would vote in favour in a poll last month.
A small quantity of the leaflets was also printed in Polish and Irish. The document was not distributed to parishes in the North.