The report for the Iona Institute, a pro-traditional marriage and Catholic ethos based think-tank, says their data shows that couples in Ireland are increasingly opting for non-traditional ceremonies.
Catholic weddings accounted for 91.4% of the total in 1994 but last year the statistic was flipped to show that just 34.3% of all ceremonies were in such a setting. Church of Ireland weddings fell in that time from 2.6% of the total to 1.1%.
Weddings carried out by Entheos Ireland reached 623 alone, outnumbering Church of Ireland weddings by more than two to one.
The Spiritualist Union of Ireland conducted 7.8% of all weddings in the country last year. When you add in weddings performed by similar organisations, they account for almost a quarter of the total, and rising.
The trend highlights the social change taking place in Ireland and the principal researcher behind the findings journalist Breda O’Brien notes that this has happened in very quick time.
Commenting on the changes, the author of the paper, Ms. O’Brien said: “It is clear that the Churches need to have a think about what is happening and come up with a response. For example, at present the Catholic Church will only hold its wedding ceremonies in churches, but it is actually free to hold those weddings in other locations, like hotels, if it wanted. This is already happening in some dioceses in America, for example”.
She added: “Unless the Churches do find a way to respond, the present trends will probably worsen from their point of view and will very likely extend to funerals as well in due course.”
She concluded: “However, it is interesting that many couples still want a spiritual dimension to their weddings. This provides an opportunity for the Churches”.
