MAKING LOVE

Social Change in Irish Catholic Churches

Social Change in Irish Catholic Churches

Introduction

Despite the changes in the Irish Society over the past fifty years, the population consensus conducted in 2001 clearly showed that almost 90 percent of the population still continued to associate themselves with the catholic churches. The census showed that Ireland was still a country having individuals who were associated with the catholic churches. The individuals of the countries of Spain, France and Italy regarded themselves as being Catholics and were detached from the churches as religious institutions and from their religion too. The Catholic churches are now regarded not to be playing a major institutional role in the political, social and economic life of the society. The ties between the catholic churches and the governmental state have deteriorated in the recent years. The catholic churches now remain to be only institutions used for the religious matters of the society. Moreover, the Catholics too now do not depend much on the catholic churches for their life related issues and they have become self reliant (Inglis, T, 2012).

Discussion

Despite the changes in the role of the catholic churches and in the nature of the residents of these countries, the individuals still consider themselves to be Catholics when they are asked about their identity. This means that the individuals who call themselves to be Catholics believe in the basic tenets of the religion but do not partake roles in the religious events which occur in the catholic churches. Therefore, it can be said that the Catholics of France, Italy and Ireland are turning more into those individuals who highly regard the religious beliefs but fail to practice it pragmatically. Therefore the state of an individual being a catholic has been changed from being a practitioner to just a believer and religion now prevails in their private lives while it does not matter to them in their dealings with the society. The sense of belongingness does exist among the Catholics but their pragmatism in this regard has decreased (Inglis, T., n.d, p. 2).

The vast majority of the populations of Spain, France and Italy regard themselves as being religious Catholics. The conclusion that can be drawn from the consensus can be that the Catholics of the European countries regard themselves as believers in God. However, the intensity of their belief is not known as to whether they believe in any personal Gods or do they hold the belief that following Jesus Christ's teachings and preaching would lead them to eternal deliverance? The studies conclude that the belief of the European Catholics is not always tied to the goal of attaining eternal salvation in their life after death. The belief in the life after death, among the Catholics of Spain and France was found to be too less as compared to that of the Italian Catholics. The Catholics of Spain and France believe that the individuals who die while being in sins would have their abode in the hell in the life after ...