A prominent Derry priest has said Catholics in the diocese are experiencing a crisis in their faith and many simply do not believe in God and many families do not take their children to Mass. Fr Michael Canny, administrator of St Eugene's Cathedral, said that while there was a crisis in vocations to priesthood and religious life, this was only the result of “a deeper crisis of faith or the lack of it in the lives of individuals and families today”.
He estimated that as many as three out of four people lived their lives “as if Jesus Christ was never born into our human condition”.
“They may have some vague notion of resurrection and eternal life, but it is very low on their list of priorities" Fr Canny remarked
He said children were no longer brought to Mass on a Sunday as a family and that many young people today are not experiencing the "passing on" of the faith as was the norm only thirty years ago.
And he predicted that while parents who do not attend Mass regularly still insist on their children receiving sacraments, this, too, would diminish in time.
"If people have no value in their faith or going to Mass, it's only a matter of time before they start thinking why should they get their children baptised, confirmed or even get married in a church" he remarked
Fr Canny said that without Mass, the faith cannot be nourished and he believed that while “the faith will always survive, it will become diluted over the years."
He was elaborating on recent remarks in his regular column in the ‘Derry People’ newspaper in which he stated that while young people gave time and resources to help people in third world countries, digging wells and building schools and hospitals they did so “out of helping those in need as opposed to seeing in them the suffering of Jesus Christ”.
“The very commendable good work has no faith element and in helping them in material ways there is seldom a reference to their deeper needs, namely bringing Jesus Christ into their lives” Fr Canny wrote.
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