Second COVID-19 & Church-21 survey launched today

The Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education (MDCCE) at DCU’s Institute of Education is conducting a new all-island survey that measures the impact over the last number of months of the varying COVID-19 restrictions on adult churchgoers.

This survey is part of an empirical study initiated at York St. John University on the impact for churchgoers in England, Scotland and Wales. The Irish study is led by Dr. Gareth Byrne, Director of the MDCCE and Dr. Bernadette Sweetman, post-doctoral researcher at the Centre.

It is a follow-up to the Coronavirus, Church & You survey which gathered nearly 1,500 responses in May 2020.  

Among the key findings from that survey were

• Prior to Covid-19, 47% of respondents attended mass weekly, 91% of respondents indicated they accessed church services online
• 63% of all respondents agreed with ‘Lockdown is a great chance to rethink the Church’s future’
• 66% of all respondents agreed with ‘We will appreciate better Church as it normally is’
• 63% of all respondents agreed with ‘The celebration of the sacraments will have a deeper meaning’

Further findings are available here.

Dr. Gareth Byrne, Director of the MDCCE, said:

“In the nine months that has passed since the first survey, it is inevitable that there have been deeper changes for many people, not least due to the possible first-hand experience of the virus, but also because of the many milestones in people’s lives that have come and gone in totally different circumstances than would previously have been considered normal.”

The research team aims to get a sense of how clergy and lay people are coping after many months of varying restrictions.  The blossoming of different forms of online and socially-distanced worship has shown the creativity of local churches, but also the variations in how much can be achieved. 

Dr. Bernadette Sweetman said:

“We would like to make a detailed audit of what has been done, how those who produce or access services feel about them, and what might faith in the future for adult churchgoers in Ireland look like?”

The online survey can be accessed here.