IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter
by Paige Brettingen,Shweta Saraswat | Apr. 4, 2013
Dublin —
Reform-minded Irish Catholics say Pope Francis is unlikely to improve the reputation of the Roman Catholic church as inflexible and out of touch, especially among the young.
“The majority of young people would say they don’t hate the church,” said Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. “It’s just that the church is irrelevant to them.”
Shortly after Francis’ election last month, Martin spoke with U.S. student journalists in Ireland on a reporting trip.
Though still a bastion of European Catholicism, Ireland has seen a significant decrease in the percentage of residents who identify as Catholic. In 1920, nearly 93 percent of the Irish population described themselves as Catholic, according to census data. By 2011, that number had dropped to 84 percent.
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