THE IRISH CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference has encouraged people who have stopped attending Mass on Sundays in recent years to return. 

In a pastoral message, Bishop Denis Nulty said Sunday has been “central to the life of the Church and remains the heart of Christian practice”. 

He said the Sunday service “offers us the rhythm for the week that follows”. 

“If perhaps your practice has slipped and other things have taken priority; if perhaps you have become accustomed to the webcam; if perhaps since the Covid pandemic you have simply ‘gotten out of the habit’, I encourage you to return, know that you are missed and know that you will be welcome,” Nulty said. 

The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin outlined ‘Why Sunday Matters’ during Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary in Co Carlow this morning. 

In his homily, he said that Sunday Mass is “our way of affirming that life has meaning” and “where God’s story and ours meet”. 

He said the Covid pandemic was “a grace in itself” because the Eucharist had been turned into “just a routine habit” and “something we take for granted”.

“This is what we missed most during those pandemic days. Sunday worship was disrupted, the sacramental life of the parish was put on hold,” he continued.

“Some have not returned to worship and some had never connected.  Today across the island, in every diocese, in every parish, all are encouraged to return.”

He added that while the Bishops’ Conference felt there was a need for the discussion, the initiative was the work “of many individuals and groups who contributed much to the discussion that has gone on for nearly two years”. 

He said the Sunday service “offers us the rhythm for the week that follows”.

There has been a significant decline in mass attendance in Ireland in recent decades due to changing attitudes towards faith and religion, and the impact of clerical abuse within the Catholic Church. 

According to the 2022 Census, some 77% of Irish citizens identified as Roman Catholic, though there was no data collected on how many still regularly go to mass. 

A survey of 1,500 adults published in 2023 found that 41% of Catholics who went to mass before Covid no longer did, up from 25% the previous year.