The challenge of bringing back churchgoers when all this is over

It would seem that only a fraction of those who used to attend Mass have returned, writes David Quinn

In America, the Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, Thomas Tobin is worried that when this pandemic finally ends a lot of worshippers will not return to Mass because they will have lost the habit.

On Twitter a few days ago, he said: “It’s clear that on a practical level, the discipline of attending Sunday Mass is gone. Post-pandemic we’ll have to invite people back to Mass by creative outreach, and by emphasising the importance of Christian community, the Word of God and the Holy Eucharist.”

In America, of course, the virus remains far more widespread than here, notwithstanding the outbreak in certain meat factories recently in the Midlands. Even in the US, mind you, the picture varies greatly, because in a way America can’t be viewed as one country, but as 50 separate ones because each state has so much freedom to deal with the virus in its own way. Some have been very strict about lockdown and some have not.

In addition, some have already been hit by the first wave of the virus (New York for instance) and some are still going through it, like Texas and Florida. But the average American would be right to be still worried about the pandemic, given the situation there, and this is especially so if you are in an older, vulnerable group, the same category most likely to go to Mass regularly. If many of this age group are still staying away, then that is understandable.

Some Americans may also have read reports about virus outbreaks in some churches, but this tended to be where the pastors had foolishly abandoned social distancing requirements. Nonetheless, incidents like this will still naturally breed caution in people.

Risk

So, perhaps Bishop Tobin is a bit premature with his statement. Maybe many are looking forward to coming back to Mass when all this is over, or when we have learnt to live with a certain amount of risk (which would still be a lot less than our recent ancestors lived with in the days before modern medicine).

What is happening in Ireland? Public worship here has been permitted again since June 29, three weeks sooner than originally planned. But churches are restricted to letting in no more than 50 people at a time, unless they are very big, so if everyone who was coming to Mass every week before the virus arrived, most would have to be turned away.

Purely anecdotally, and to judge from speaking to priests and lay-people, probably around a quarter of people who were coming to Mass each week before this began, have returned. (To emphasise again, this is based on anecdotal evidence only.)

One temptation in the face of this will be to think that if they were only coming out of habit, then their Faith can’t have been too strong to begin with”

Where is everyone else and what are their intentions? These are absolutely key questions for the future of the Church in Ireland and elsewhere.

Some will be staying away out of fear, or because they know if too many come, they will not be allowed into church. But unfortunately, and despite my earlier caveats, Bishop Tobin is probably right when he says a certain number won’t come back at all. They will simply have fallen out of the habit.

One temptation in the face of this will be to think that if they were only coming out of habit, then their Faith can’t have been too strong to begin with. There is a lot of truth to this, but we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of habit. It is probably the reason we do a lot of important things.

We all have daily routines. To take a simple example, you might like to take a daily walk. If you got out of the habit of doing this, it would have consequences for your health. It’s no good saying you can’t have been very committed to exercise in the first place if you dropped the habit so quickly, when the habit was a very good one.

Not going to Mass regularly can easily have consequences for your spiritual health, and even ultimate salvation. (That is not the sort of thing you’re supposed to say nowadays, but losing contact with the community of Faith can easily result in something even worse: alienation from God.)

Conventions

Humans are habitual by nature, and we imitate other people a lot of the time. If the habits are good, and the social conventions are good, don’t underestimate them.

Imagine, for example, the retired people who used to come to 10am Mass every day. Not only was this bringing them out of their homes (maybe they live on their own), it was putting them in touch with both the wider Faith community, and the community in general.

The consequences of losing this habit would be grave from both a spiritual and a mental health point of view.

Apart from the Church, other sectors of society are worried about their future because of the pandemic. What other habits will be broken? It might seem like a good thing if people can work from home more, but that is probably only true up to a point. The office is another form of community where people meet one another, make new friends and learn from the experience of older workers, among other things.

One way or another, the Church must prepare for the possibility that there will be a lot of ‘lost sheep’ after this”

Town centres could easily die and we will no longer meet fellow workers for drinks or a meal at the end of a working day. I’m not sure that is an advance, especially if you are young and in search of the wider world.

One way or another, the Church must prepare for the possibility that there will be a lot of ‘lost sheep’ after this, and if we mean what we say about being ‘pastoral’, we will, as Bishop Tobin says, have to be creative and energetic about bringing them back to the flock.