Church must avoid a culture of ‘benign indifference’

The Irish Church must take decisive action to avoid Catholics drifting into “benign indifference”, a leading sociologist has said.

The comments come in response to a new survey carried out by Hodder Faith and Home for Good which revealed that British adults aged 18-24 are most likely to agree that being an atheist or non-religious is more normal than being a Christian.

The survey, which interviewed 4,087 British adults, also showed that 44% agreed that they have had a positive experience of Christians and Christianity, and half of those surveyed disagreed that Christians are a negative force in society.

Context

Commenting on the findings, Prof. Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, said “the thing this data most clearly shows in the Irish context is how different the situation is in Britain”, noting that there seems to be an “benign indifference” towards Christianity in the UK, whereas in Ireland there are much stronger opinions on the topic.

Prof. Bullivant did, however, note that Ireland may be starting the same process of religious decline that has already happened in “Britain, France, Germany, and the rest of Western Europe”, and so these current UK statistics may reflect the future of Ireland.

“Maybe in 40 years from now, you’ve got this to look forward to, but I hope Ireland can do better than that,” Prof. Bullivant told The Irish Catholic.

Indifference

In spite of the findings, he added that a “benign indifference” should not lead to a hopelessness in evangelising but that the message of the Gospel can still resonate with lukewarm and non-believers.

“It’s precisely this kind of benign indifference to Christianity which opens up the possibility of people encountering it as something new, challenging and exciting,” Prof. Bullivant said.