Greg Daly
Catholic chaplains have rejected suggestions that low Mass attendance at institutes of technology might provide a meaningful way of measuring the contribution of chaplaincies to college life.
Following Freedom of Information requests to 13 institutes of technology, Atheist Ireland criticised how third level colleges annually provide over €1.5 million for Catholic-run chaplaincies. Citing an average attendance of nine at IT Sligo’s chaplaincy Mass, and of four at Cork IT’s Lectio Divina service, the lobby group said “it is amazing that such significant sums spent on providing largely unused religious services can escape all scrutiny”.
Such an analysis misses the point of chaplaincy services, Dublin Institute of Technology chaplain Fr Alan Hilliard told The Irish Catholic. If chaplaincy Mass attendance appears low, he said, “It proves that we’re a mission of service to the community, and we’re not trying to proselytise.”
While Atheist Ireland’s approach reflected a “very narrow interpretation of what chaplaincy is”, Fr David McAuliffe of CIT said, CIT’s chaplaincy offers a range of liturgical services including an “absolutely packed” annual Mass of remembrance for deceased staff and students, with high student attendances during Advent and on Ash Wednesday.
Bereavement
“Bereavement support is given to staff and students on a continuing basis,” he said, adding, “there isn’t a week goes by that I wouldn’t have two or three staff- or student-related deaths where you attend the funeral and follow up at a later date if they request it.”
Waterford Institute of Technology’s Fr David Keating, who chairs the IT Chaplains’ Association, told The Irish Catholic that chaplaincy “follows through to the home life of students, to hospitals and prisons and other visits outside of college”.
He emphasised that chaplaincies serve all staff and students, regardless of their faith, and Fr McAuliffe noted that CIT’s shared college chapel allows for a “high degree of integration between students from the Muslim faith, from the Catholic faith, and from other Christian denominations at that level”.
The chaplaincy service, he added, plays an important role in working with CIT’s international student society in helping integrate international students into college and Irish life.