A Derry priest has said the city now has a "lapsed generation" of Catholic parents and that grandparents are now taking over as promoters of the faith among children. Fr Aidan Mullan, who is parish priest in the Waterside parish, said he was concerned that so many children attending Catholic schools in Derry are not attending church on Sundays.
"I say we are half lapsed because there are grandparents swinging into action and bringing children to Mass and teaching them their prayers,” he remarked.
"If people are not attending Mass, we say they are lapsed, but it is deeper than that,” Fr Mullan remarked.
"Because of our profound relationship with Jesus Christ in the Sunday Mass, we are in tune with the mind of Christ and have a greater urgency about being moral and doing what is right.”
"The generation who are not coming to Mass now were brought to Mass when they were children and did get a powerful sense of what is right and wrong”.
Fr Mullan said he believed Catholic schools were “the most valuable resource we have” in tackling the issue of non-practising and lapsed parents.
And he said that because of the lack of practice of religion, many people today had a "warped sense" of morality from TV soaps and materialism and consumerism will fill the vacuum in people's lives if they have no specific morality.
The Church could not compete with non-religious performances at theatres and on television, said Fr Mullan.
"People say Mass is dull, boring and uninteresting but that's because it's being compared to TV,” he declared.
“Going to Mass is not a spectator sport, it involves concentration, application and preparation."
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