NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY JOANNE SWEENEY – 26 FEBRUARY 2015
Only one in five Catholics is regularly attending Sunday Mass in the Down and Connor Diocese, a new report has revealed.
And attendance at Mass in the greater Belfast area has been recorded as low as 16% of all Catholics who live in the area, according to the diocesan report.
Figures from an audit taken last year in Down and Connor, the second largest diocese on the island, showed that based on the 2011 census figures of a potential 356,585 Catholics, only 72,818 were recorded as attending weekly Mass over a two-week period when the count was taken.
The findings also show a situation of an aging church population against the backdrop of an aging priest population.
There were 27 priests aged under 50 in 2014 and 54 aged between 51 and 65, while a third of all Mass-goers were aged 61 and over.
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