A window into religious belief during lockdown

For many people, their religious faith increased during Covid-19 restrictions, writes David Quinn

We have been collectively living through the most unusual period of our lives since we went into the first lockdown in March of last year following the emergence in Wuhan, China, of Covid-19.

Freedom

All parts of life have been affected, including the day-to-day things we had previously completely taken for granted, like the freedom to go into a pub or restaurant, attend a match, drop into a friend, have a big get-together in your house, attend school, college, and, of course, Mass.

We all wonder about the extent to which things will return to complete normality after this is all over. There are some things we hope don’t get back to ‘normal’, like long commutes to the office every day, or environmental degradation. Parents been able to spend more time with their children.

This is why there is talk of trying to ‘build back better’.

Religious faith

How will the Church emerge from it all? In fact, what has been happening to people’s religious faith during the long periods of lockdown when we have been unable to attend Mass? The Iona Institute, (which I head), has commissioned a series of polls during lockdown to try and find out the answer to this question. The polls have been carried out by Amarach Research, and some of the results have been reported in this newspaper as they came out.

The results of the latest poll offer fresh insights into how Catholics have been practising their faith when they could not meet communally.

Many people have died because of Covid-19 and the lives of billions of people have been disrupted”

For example, have people been praying more or less during the lockdown? The answer is that 15% of adults say they are praying more than usual, while 5% are praying less.

Among those who were praying anyway, the number has risen by 26%.

Has the pandemic made people’s faith weaker or stronger? This is an interesting one, because when natural disaster happens, and unnecessary suffering occurs, we often question the nature, or even the existence of God. ‘How can a good God let bad things happen?’, we ask.

Many people have died because of Covid-19 and the lives of billions of people have been disrupted. Many have fallen into worse mental health as a result, untold numbers have lost their jobs, there are reports of increased domestic abuse, and so on.

Therefore, you might almost expect that people’s religious faith would have weakened because of the pandemic. In fact, 12% say their faith has strengthened, whereas only 8% say it has become weaker.

Why is the number who say their faith has grown stronger half as high again as the number who say it has weakened?

Believers

We can only speculate, but one reason could be that people seek meaning and purpose in suffering. They rebel against the idea that it means nothing and no good can come from it.

Among people who were religious before the pandemic began, 18% say it has made their faith stronger. Another reason may be that in times of trouble, we fall back on God more. Certainly, that should be the response of religious believers.

Similarly, 20% of respondents think they will be more ‘spiritual’ after the pandemic. ‘Spiritual’ is a very nebulous, ambiguous term, but in this case, it probably means they will try to be less materialistic.

A quarter of people who were attending Mass regularly before the pandemic began say their mental health has suffered as a result, probably from the increased social isolation.

This is one of the costs of lockdown. We hear a lot about how lockdown can save lives, but it can do lots of damage as well.

What will happen to Mass-attendance now that we are able to go to Mass again, albeit with a cap on numbers?

A previous Iona/Amarach poll found that 4% of previous Mass-goers said they would not come back, and another 19% said they did not know.

Back in June the fear factor was still extremely strong and no-one had been vaccinated”

This latest poll didn’t ask that exact question, but 65% of people who were going to Mass regularly before the pandemic said they would go to Mass tomorrow if they were allowed. (The poll was conducted just before the latest easing of restrictions).

That’s fairly encouraging. Last June, when we were first let back to Mass, only 27% said they would ‘go tomorrow’ if that could.

Back in June the fear factor was still extremely strong and no-one had been vaccinated. But now almost all elderly and vulnerable people have received at least one vaccination and therefore the link between daily cases and daily deaths is much weaker than it was.

In addition, the risk of attending public worship was never what we were led to believe. So long as numbers were kept limited and other safety measures adhered to, it was actually very safe which is why very few European countries banned public worship, other than in the first lockdown last year.

In any case, we should take a certain amount of cheer from the poll findings because they show that for many people, their religious faith has increased during lockdown, not the other way around.

Fearful

The real test will, of course, be when we can come back to Mass as normal. Will some people become permanently fearful of the dangers of infection in crowded places? Will others have simply drifted away? Or maybe parishes might become proactive and invite those people who think we need to be more ‘spiritual’ to consider coming to church regularly maybe for the first time ever and consider the benefits of belonging to a spiritual community devoted to following the example of Jesus, even if we don’t all do that as well as we might.