Pope Francis prays in front of the "Miraculous Crucifix" from the Church of St. Marcellus in Rome during a prayer service in an empty St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.
Photo: CNS We may see the possibilities of technologies being realised more and more by faith communities even as things start to get back to normal writes Dr Brian Conway
Perhaps more than at any other time in recent history, today’s pandemic world has led to a rapid reappraisal of how we organise virtually every single aspect of our social lives, from shopping, work and healthcare to banking, dating and religiosity. It has changed our relationships – with our own bodies, with others, and with nature. It has shaken us out of taken-for-granted assumptions about mobility, security and space.
In observations about these changes, some attention has been given to the apparent boom in online religion or what might be called remote religion. Webcams have been brought into use for this like never before, allowing devotees to participate in religious services or engage in more solo-oriented religious behaviours such as prayer. Of course, online religion predates the pandemic but has been given renewed emphasis in recent times. A good example of this is the online religion offerings of the national Marian shrine in Knock, Co. Mayo, where livestreaming of daily Mass and of the Apparition Chapel takes place. YouTube viewership figures for daily Mass in the shrine in the last month show that the number of viewers of services range from about 300 to an impressive 8,000. To put this in context, five months ago viewership figures rarely went above 1,000. This provides evidence of increasing engagement with online religion during the pandemic. Alongside this, religious groups are falling back on ‘old’ forms of parish communication such as letters, phone calls and newsletters. We may see the possibilities of technologies being realised more and more by religious authorities after the pandemic. Even so, it is important not to exaggerate or overstate this potential. As much as online teaching is not a complete substitute for face-to-face teaching, online religion lacks the co-presence and intensity of more traditional formats.
Recent research shows that the impact of the pandemic on faith and religion has not been simple or straightforward.
Sociologist Gladys Ganiel’s survey-based study entitled People Still Need Us, focusing on the pandemic’s impact on religious groups, found that it led to a significant uptick in online worship provision. Moreover, religious groups are more likely to have dedicated online worship personnel now than before the pandemic. In addition, religious groups have increased their social outreach roles in providing support to the elderly and other needy groups. Of course, the question of how long any uptick in religiosity might last is an important one.
Studies not yet published, such as an online survey-based study by Dublin City University’s Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, will help us to drill down even deeper into the impact of the pandemic on religious groups.
At the same time, we also know that the pandemic has brought out its own challenges for religious leaders. The State restrictions on gatherings have led to the curtailment of regular religious services as well as the ritual marking of death and other lifecycle events such as communions, confirmations and weddings. This is especially challenging in the Catholic case given the centrality of the sacraments in the Church’s daily life. This has meant that clergy have had to celebrate some of these rituals in front of empty churches, where it is more difficult to establish a presence among ordinary people. It is also made more difficult by the ageing out of clergy and religious. As many clergy are themselves in a vulnerable category, many have had to step back from face-to-face ministry to protect their own health and wellbeing. Adapting to new forms of religious expression has also led to growing workload burdens for religious leaders who are able to continue in ministry, even if in a curtailed way. The observation by a Church of Ireland respondent in the Ganiel study that, “Although people say, ‘You must be having a quiet time Rector’, life is busy with all its remote communicating. This is time consuming”, probably finds an echo in many a presbytery and parochial house.
Another downside of the pandemic has been the erosion in religious financial giving. While this has been partially offset by online donations, public health restrictions have dealt a body blow to church collections. This means that there are fewer resources to support the day-to-day living expenses of clergy but also to develop Church responses to needs arising from the pandemic. In the Dublin Archdiocese alone, the salaries of priests have been reduced by as much as 25%, a pattern replicated across many other dioceses as well.
Of course, it’s not just that the pandemic has impacted religion (‘pandemic to religion’) but also that religion has influenced the pandemic (‘religion to pandemic’). This is reflected in the prophetic ministry of Pope Francis in drawing attention to the pandemic’s prolonging of already existing structural inequalities, showing how moral values can be brought to bear in shaping global responses to it. Addressing charismatic Catholics in a video message in May, Pope Francis spoke of the “pandemic of poverty” requiring our collective attention and action: “If we do not work to end the pandemic of poverty in the world, the pandemic of poverty in the country of each one of us, in the city where each of us lives, this time will have been in vain.” Perhaps religious leaders will amplify a new prophetic voice in tomorrow’s post-pandemic world.
Today’s difficult context shows that faith and religiosity are as much shaped by critical moments as by social processes like urbanisation. Such moments are often fast-moving, sudden and unexpected. Although sometimes seen as suffering from bureaucratic inertia, the pandemic has brought into focus that religious institutions are also quite adaptive and innovative in responding to quickly evolving social contexts. As the uncertainties generated by the pandemic continue to play out in our everyday lives, religion may well provide an underacknowledged comfort blanket in these unsettled times.
Dr Brian Conway is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University.