Census 2022 question on religion

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118878821#Comment_118878821

There are a fair few people identifying as catholics who don't believe on transubstantiation but eat pasta on a regular basis- maybe they need to be honest with themselves and reach out to His noodly appendage

Pherekydes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118881750#Comment_118881750

My household bucked the trend, going from 17% in 2016 to 50% this time. The 4 youngest "nones" fled the nest, meaning we went from 1/6 to 1/2. The wife clings on...

Boardnashea

I don't think Catholicism has an exclusive hold on the "I was raised a .. therefore I'm a .. on Census 2022". I'm sure there is a significant proportion of all faiths could be considered in the same bracket.

I really look forward to seeing how much the results change from last census on the basis of the reshaped question.

On another related issue... would the DPC have any problem with the Catholic Church refusing to adjust their membership lists if requested by a "previous" member?

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119963800#Comment_119963800

do they hold membership lists? they hold information on baptisms but that is a record of an event.

Quin_Dub

I see that the latest census from the UK shows that Christianity no longer represents the majority of people in the UK.

~46% of the UK report themselves as "Christian" with "No Religion" the next up on about ~37%.

The trending indicates that "No Religion" will overtake Christianity in about 10 years.

All the others are well below 10% .

Really interested to see what the comparable numbers look like for Ireland when they process the latest census data.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119963800#Comment_119963800

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119963843#Comment_119963843

The Catholic church doesn't have membership lists. What it has is membership estimates, but those estimates don't involve identifying any particular person as Catholic or non-Catholic; just estimating the total number of Catholics. They do have baptismal registers, but they can't be treated as a current membership estimate, if only because the great bulk of the names recorded in baptismal registers are of people who have already died.

When I last looked at this, a few years ago, the Catholic church's estimates of its own membership in Ireland (North and South) tallied pretty closely with the available census information on self-identification (which, at that time, was from 2011). Whether the church authorities were actually using the census information to derive or correct their own estimates I cannot say, but I suspect they were. I have a post about this buried somewhere deep within the Board's archives, but my search skills are/the board search engine is not up to finding it.

It will be interesting to see if the church's next membership estimates — each diocese is supposed to produce one annually — reflect the same decline in membership as the census results will.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119966066#Comment_119966066

well their estimates are certainly not based on a headcount of those attending mass.

Hotblack Desiato

Just this guy's opinion really but interesting nonetheless:

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/11/16/ni-catholics-identify-with-religion-for-political-reasons-mps-told/

Many non-practicing Catholics in the North continue to identify themselves by their religion because of its “political significance”, MPs at Westminster have heard.

Giving his assessment of the 2021 census results – which found Catholics outnumbered Protestants for the first time in Northern Ireland’s history – Dr Kevin McNicholl said that, for him, there was an “important takeaway” that “hadn’t been commented on as much”.

“Part of the reason why someone would call themselves Protestant to indicate they’re Protestant is not the same reason someone would indicate that they’re Catholic,” the Open Learning tutor at Queen’s University Belfast told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

“It seems when Catholics stop their religious observance they would still call themselves ‘Catholic’; it’s more of a cultural thing with political significance.

“For Protestants, that’s not necessarily the case to the same extent. So that’s when you find for [those identifying as] ‘British alone’ [in the census], the number is more than those identifying as Irish, for example.”

Dr McNicholl pointed to the symbolic significance of the census results – and the “obvious” policy outcome in relation to “increased calls for a Border poll”.

But he also noted the rise in the number of “others” – that group of people identifying as having no religion – which would “swing such a Border poll”.

That group, he said, were “very diverse”.

“Even considering them as a ‘third minority’, it overeggs the idea this is a homogenous group in the same way as Irish or British.”

Published in September, the latest census results showed those identifying as Protestant dipped from approximately 48 per cent in 2011 to 44 per cent last year. Catholics increased from 45 per cent to 46 per cent.

Statisticians found a marked increase in those who said they had no faith, at 17.4 per cent compared to 10.1 per cent a decade ago.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119966374#Comment_119966374

No. But, then, they never were. Atheists, for some reason, seem to attach far more signficance to regular church attendance than Christians do. 😉

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119967128#Comment_119967128

clearly that is the case. I dont think that is the burn you think it is.

Hotblack Desiato

Don't know about the rest of you but when I was a child / teenager there was hell to pay (no pun intended) if you skipped mass... I don't think that was at all unusual then either.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119968402#Comment_119968402

We were masters of the "drive through" at the local Church.

Walk in one door at the back, pick up a copy of the missalette and confirm which priest was on duty then out the other door.

That way you could answer the security questions at home.

"Which Priest said mass?" and "What was the sermon about?"

Hotblack Desiato

But with your technique you wouldn't know what the sermon was about. I suppose you could just say you fell asleep or drifted off miles away through sheer boredom.

ohnonotgmail

I knew someone who used to grill his little sister on what happened at mass on the pretext that he didnt believe that she went.

smacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119968402#Comment_119968402

Neither of my parents were religious, wasn't Christened nor ever went to a mass beyond weddings and funerals. Thank God for atheism 😎

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119970292#Comment_119970292

Now that's genius

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119970347#Comment_119970347

So how you do know you don't like religion if you never tried it 🤣

smacl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119970435#Comment_119970435

Possibly stems from the bullying and being called a pagan by the pious Christians when I was a young lad in the 70s. Being an atheist in Ireland at that point in time didn't go down well in many circles. I sure as hell didn't associate Christianity with kindness or generosity of spirit. Looking back on it, it could well be due in part to jealousy at not having to go to mass and getting a lie in on a Sunday.