EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT GERARD MOLONEY CSsR
A POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH
At
first, celebrating the liturgy behind closed church doors is a jolting experience for the priest. There is the emptiness and the eerie silence – the sense of talking to oneself. Without the warmth, the sounds, the engagement that’s generated even by a small congregation in the pews, the celebrant feels disconcerted. Ill at ease. And even though the celebrant adjusts over time, there is no escaping the unnaturalness of liturgies behind closed doors. It runs counter to how liturgies are supposed to be celebrated. Lockdown liturgies have been just as disconcerting for those who usually occupy the pews. Life-long habits have been disrupted. People miss being able to actively celebrate the sacraments and receive holy communion as well as the sense of community and solidarity that they feel in church. Even though they are grateful for online liturgies, something impossible even 20 years ago, these are no substitute for the real thing. Closed church doors have been a source of pain for priests and people alike. It has been a time of hardship from which recovery will be slow. What kind of recovery there will be is the question. Undoubtedly, a cohort of committed Catholics will return to Mass and the sacraments once the restrictions have been lifted. They will be thrilled to be able to do so. But not everyone will return. Some will be worried about the risk of infection; others will be happy to continue to 'get' Mass online. It's safer and far less hassle to participate remotely from the comfort of one's home or bed than go to the trouble of attending in person. Also, during the lockdown, many people shopped around online for a liturgy that suited them. Once they found a church or a liturgy or a time they liked, they tended to stick with it, even if that liturgy was being
celebrated at the other end of the country or the other end of the world. Convenience and comfort, as well as the quality of the liturgy, were the determining factors. Even if they can now return to their own parish, they may feel more attached to the one they have discovered on the web. Local loyalties may not be strong enough to lure them back to their old parish. But we are talking here only about a minority of people. Far more likely there will be no rush back to church. Many former worshippers won’t bother to return. The sense of duty or obligation or force of habit that took them to church in the past has been broken. Once broken, it will not be restored. What had been an inexorable decline in church attendance over the past 30 years will have become a stampede. Whole families will be lost. The post-pandemic parish, like the post-pandemic world at large, will look very different to that which existed before. This has tremendous implications for the church. How does one maintain or build a sense of parish and Christian community if regular church attendance has collapsed? How does a community hand on the faith? How will parishes and dioceses get by on sharplyreduced incomes? Church closures and the merging of parishes will become even more commonplace. It's not all doom and gloom. Clergy and liturgists have been introduced to the power of the internet. Many parishes did not have a strong online presence in the pre-lockdown era. Some had scarcely any at all. Now, most recognise the need to use the internet and social media to reach out to their people and as a means of evangelisation. They have become aware of the internet's vast potential. But if the liturgy isn't attractive, if the preaching isn't effective, if there isn't an option for active engagement by
those participating online, then online communities will also begin to fade away, and few will be left to hear the good news either in person or on the web. The future will be bleak indeed. As we prepare for a synod of the Irish church, we need to look at how we can be more effective witnesses to the Gospel in the third decade of the 21st century and what committed church members can do online and in person to renew and revitalise this frail and precious broken church of ours.
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Gerard Molonry CSsR Acting Editor
