By now a great deal has been said about the Discern survey report on Sunday Mass attendance. In my opinion the result was not very different from what was expected. Yet, at least parts of it were quite unexpected and shocked even persons in the know.

In a previous article I had written for the religion column of The Sunday Times of Malta a few weeks after the survey was taken, I had said that for a survey to be useful we should honestly ask ourselves about the extent of our responsibility for what comes out of it. Even more, we should listen to what those who are leaving us or have left us have to tell us.

There is more than one reason why Sunday Mass attendance is dwindling: dull services, irrelevant homilies, the secularisation of society, cleric child molesters, cover-ups and possibly more. Others have already given their opinion about many of these reasons.  Doubtlessly all these contribute to render the Church and its service less credible and less desirable.

In this article I would like to comment on what I consider to be one other cause which I do not believe has been mentioned: the loss of a sense of community.

This is greatly due to the changing demographic pattern. Until a little after the war the communitarian dimension of the population was still felt. Villages were small and life unfolded in their main square, people were more in the street and neighbours knew each other. Faith was not questioned and when people went to Mass they did so as a community which shared its faith in an act of worship albeit this may not have been lived consciously.

Transmitting the message that Mass is a communitarian celebration of faith is of the utmost importance

Little by little this situation changed dramatically. Rings of houses were built around our villages, which grew and grew until they now touch each other. New generations establish homes far away from their original village more easily and move to other villages without feeling any affinity to the village they move to and without participating in its life.

Nowadays more people live in apartments rather than houses and do most of their shopping in supermarkets rather than in the street corner store. In this way they spend less time in the street. Anonymity has grown and the sense of community has given way to individualism. More and more people are organising their life independently of their neighbours.

I believe that in a way this has also contributed to the change of the nature of attending Sunday Mass. For those who still do, attending Mass is a very individual thing. It has become something between me and God. It is more like fulfilling an obligation or, at best, “charging the battery” than a celebration of faith. Given that Mass is much more, in no time the practice is experienced as irrelevant and given up.

Creating a community in this individualistic environment won’t be easy for the parish although no effort should be spared. The contemporary demographic situation cannot be changed but transmitting the message that Mass is a communitarian celebration of faith is of the utmost importance.

A good way to start is to get rid of the obstacles most of which are of our own making. Lace and Latin, giving excessive importance to rubrics, an overemphasised formality and complex ceremony may increase the sense of mystery but they also create a barrier between what is being celebrated on the altar and the faithful. All this makes the faithful feel more like spectators than celebrants as indeed they are.

One has only to observe how many belonging to religious groups, including young people, enjoy even lengthy Masses. They do not live Mass as individuals but as a sharing of their common faith in Christ’s salvation and celebrating it with joy. They feel that the Mass is theirs not just the priest’s.

They celebrate it as a community and cherishing their experience, they won’t skip Mass easily.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece