Alice Quinza, a student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had just attended Sunday evening Mass at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin city centre. She felt the Mass carried “not the same energy”as in her country, where it would be “more exuberant”.
Quinza said it was “very different to the way we worship back in Congo”.
Others from Nigeria, Spain and the Philippines agreed: the Masses here are shorter, less methodical and often “too relaxed”.
As the number of practising Irish Catholics decreases, a growing diversity among congregations attending Masses in the Republic is becoming ever more pronounced.
RM Block
It is similar with clergy in recent years, with more and more African and Asian priests leading liturgies in Catholic parishes across the island as a whole.
Walter and Indira Kuizon, from the Philippines, have been in Ireland five years. Speaking after a Saturday vigil Mass, they said the main difference they notice about Masses is that “in the Philippines there is a commentator to tell people when to kneel down, when to stand up, when to sit. `Please all kneel down, please all stand up,’ the commentator would say.”
With them was Eburnia, their daughter. “Ivory in Latin,” explained Walter. “Four in December,” he added. “She was made in Ireland,” laughed Indira.
Victor Diaz, who has been in Ireland for 20 years and runs a web design business, said: “I see many mistakes celebrating Mass, also with people attending Mass. Why are they not following the rules; why are they not following the liturgy?”
From Madrid, he described himself as “a normal Catholic” and was speaking recently after Mass in Ballinteer, Co Dublin. It was all “too relaxed”, meaning “everything is possible in Ireland, and my concern is why everything is possible?” he said. “I have travelled in 21 countries, in my work and my life, and I only see something like this in Germany and here.”
But Ester Alvarez, who was at Mass with her daughter Iciar, son Inigo and six schoolfriends from Madrid who were visiting her in Dublin, said Mass was “not much different” to what it is in Spain. She has been in Ireland for more than a year.
“Sometimes you stand up when we don’t, but the rest is certainly the same.”
However, in Madrid attendance would include “many more people”, she said, adding: “I can see here that the faith is going down, at least that’s what I feel."
And congregations in Madrid would not be as diverse. “In Madrid, in Spain in general, there is less immigration. Here you can see a beautiful mix of different cultures,” she said. In Madrid, Mass attendance “is very strong”. “In Bilbao, where my husband is from, it’s a little bit down,” she said.
If attendances at Masses in Ireland have become more diverse, so too have the new missionaries.
Among them is the South American Shalom Catholic Community group. There are 10 of these young lay missionaries in Dublin at the moment, and they organise the 6pm Mass on Sunday’s at the Pro Cathedral. The group has been in Ireland for seven years. In 2007 it was formally recognised by the Vatican and given final approval in 2012.
Lorena Ruegg from the Brazilian city of Fortaleza has been in Dublin for 18 months and, though a qualified pharmacist, works as a technician in a city pharmacy.
“We began in Brazil but are now everywhere,” she said. As well as organising the Sunday Mass at the Pro Cathedral, they have a prayer group, she said. “We are trying to evangelise the Irish people.”
When it came to the style of worship in Ireland, she said that “everywhere I go I have the same experience”.
“That is what’s beautiful about the Catholic Church.” She was recently in Poland, where she “couldn’t understand anything, but I knew it was the same as in Portuguese or English, as the Catholic Church is the same in the whole world”.
Fr Tijo John, from Kerala in India, is a member of the Sacred Heart Missionaries Order. He and some Indian colleagues in the order arrived in Ireland last January. To date, he has served in Dublin, the second priest is in Galway and the third man is in Cork.
“We are here at the invitation of the order, we have a province over here. We have been taking up what they are doing but will be working independently from next year onwards,” he said.
On arrival in Ireland last January “we had two weeks of an inculturation programme”. Taking part in that course were “18 of us [priests] who came from Africa, India, Indonesia, other places, different orders”. It was “very helpful”, he said.
Then they moved to different places. “I was in Tallaght, in Killinarden. It’s a very different community over there, and I moved from there to here [Ballinteer, Co Dublin] three months ago. The idea is to get experience of different places.”
Theirs is “a long-term project”. “The plan is to stay in Ireland. We have a process whereby we serve for three years and we continue after that, but every year we go home for a holiday,” he said.
At Masses in Ireland he noticed very different responses from young people in some churches and the elderly.
“We see the faith is still alive,” he said. “It’s so evident. They come to the church with openness. Maybe it’s a task for us to see the other group, those who are not coming to church, how do we attract them?”
Faith is “still out there, so I’m happy with that”.
He added: “It’s a cycle, probably; people keep coming back. I’ve been to different places in Europe, the US also, and I see more and more young people coming back. Probably that will take place here too.”
