(Aeneas Bonner, Irish News)

A senior Catholic bishop has called for a new evangelisation in Ireland to counter the decline in the number of people attending Mass and in Christian values generally.

Dr Patrick Walsh, head of Ireland's second largest diocese in Down and Connor, made the call yesterday in his annual pastoral letter to 88 parishes ahead of the start of Lent on Wednesday.

He said the diocese had experienced a weakening of faith, marked by falls in religious attendance and vocations to the priesthood.

"Research figures and our own observations show that there is a decline in attendance at Sunday Mass, especially among the younger age group," he said.

"For all too many it is a case of attending Mass on Christmas Day and Ash Wednesday, with the occasional funeral and wedding.

"Very many people do pray but the good news of Jesus Christ has not been assimilated and lived out in religious practice.

"More and more people say they want to belong to Christ, but not to the Church."

The bishop also claimed that there had been a decline in Christian values in society which he said included major changes in attitudes to marriage and family life.

He warned that that these changes had left too many children "living in a house rather than in a home".

"The society in which we all live and in which the Church fulfils its mission has been to a very large extent de-Christianised," he added.

"Christian values are excluded from many aspects of societal life. In every stratum of society issues of justice and equality are ignored."

Dr Walsh said the diocese had attempted to respond by appointing a family ministry commission, full-time youth faith development officers, and a diocesan social affairs commission.

He said the diocese was also exploring how to use its website to proclaim the Gospel as well as offer information.

"The Church must engage with the contemporary world and its needs by presenting the Gospel in a way which touches the men and women of our time," he said. But he said a 'pastoral revitalisation' was also needed at every level of Church life – with bishops and priests "only too aware how we ourselves stand in need of conversion and renewal".

Announcing that special prayer cards would be distributed with ashes this Wednesday, Dr Walsh appealed to lay people to also be God's witness "at the coal face".

"We must ask ourselves are we sufficiently enthusiastic, sufficiently courageous, in giving Christ's message to those whom we can reach?" he said.

"You must aim at a high standard of ordinary Christian living. You must not settle for a life of mediocrity, to quote our Holy Father, the Pope.

"We must have a new sense of mission, which cannot be left to a group of specialists but must involve the responsibility of all the members of the people of God."

This article appeared first in the March 3, 2003 edition of the Irish News.

This article appears thanks to the Irish News. Subscribe to the Irish News