The Sunday Mass census

The full truth why so many born Catholics stop practising their faith by not attending Sunday Mass will never be known. We can only guess. But guess we must if we want to discern some action-propelling explanations. Comparisons with what has happened and is happening abroad are hardly helpful. We are, to a large extent, unique. Who can fathom out the heavy mixture of our culture and faith?

Those of us who spent many years abroad and came back home still practising the faith have experienced how hard it was to make a conscious decision to attend Sunday Mass regularly, irrespective of the lack of every prop that was always easily available in Malta and Gozo. To travel long distances every week to make Mass on time in London, Toronto or Melbourne entailed a commitment. This type of commitment is hardly ever tested here.

So many Maltese have an emotional attachment to their faith. Hence the enthusiastic participation of so many youngsters and others in the preparations and celebrations of the annual festas. Take away this attachment and they too will find it hard to commit themselves in a mature way to the true practice of the faith.

I listened once to a highly respected cleric in Gozo telling his group of friends that it would be wrong to encourage the Church there to have fewer public manifestations in the form of fireworks, bell-ringing, bands and street decorations, as these cultural expressions keep the people coming to church.

The Church, both in Malta and Gozo, has a huge challenge: Purify itself to become more like the Church of the gospel and risk losing those who have made out of religion a consumable product or carry on playing the part of a national entertainer and risk the increasing haemorrhage that is already hitting it very hard.

Many of the youngsters I meet can't stand hypocrisy. Unfortunately, they see in many a cleric not a man of God but a man who is too busy looking after mundane matters. Some priests do not exude the joy of a Church that believes in the Risen Lord. In his book Giants Surrounded by Monkeys, Fr Pius E. Sammut OCD commented: "Yes, joy is one of the fundamental aspects of a true Christian. And yet it is hardly ever associated with Christianity.

"Many believe that the Church is dull while sin is fun. Someone once remarked to me: 'I might have become a priest if certain priests I knew had not looked and acted so much as undertakers!'".

Many Catholics who have grappled seriously with a crisis of conscience have opted out of belonging to the Church because they see too much baggage in it, which separates them from the spiritual meaning of their baptismal calling. They look at misplaced emphasis on dubious devotions, statues, processions and other distractions and they seek shelter in the comfort of sects and cults that offer them more of a personal and meaningful interpretation of Christianity.

There are those who stopped going to church as a protest. They object to certain practices sanctioned by the local Church. The annual cruelty inflicted upon the sick and the elderly by the horrid petards year after year in the name of some saint or other.

The letting off of petards during solemn and highly spiritual occasions such as processions with the Blessed Sacrament in some parishes in Malta and Gozo. The ritual initiation of so many children in the scandalous rivalries that turn some parish communities into tribal groupings rather than loving Christian communities.

Purifying the Church from anything that disfigures the gospel message is no easy task. It is a risky strategy. But ours is a Church that believes in a Saviour who took risks. As the former Dominican Master of the Order, Fr Timothy Radcliffe put it "the Church has to attempt to walk on water". By neglecting to do so, the Church here will continue to attract those who will find in it their comfort zone while at the same time lose those who want to participate in a spiritual journey based on the gospel message.