Anecdotal evidence indicates that more and more people have returned to Sunday worship following the lifting of Covid restrictions as the Catholic Church prepares to re-institute the obligation to attend Sunday mass.

Fr John Collins, co-priest at Swords (Drynam) in Co Dublin, told the Irish Times that mass attendance in his parish “is more or less back” to pre-Covid levels, though some elderly or vulnerable people have continued to watch online.

Come Easter, he said, he expects to be back to normal.

Encouraging reports also came from Fr John Walsh, curate at Buncrana in Co Donegal. “Numbers are up significantly,” he said, “and most are wearing masks.”

At their Quarterly Spring Meeting, Ireland’s Catholic bishops decided that from April 17th, Easter Sunday, attendance at weekend Mass “will once again be deemed an essential expression of faith”.

The little-noticed rule change is, arguably, the clearest sign yet that the Church believes the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has passed, after two years during which almost every element of its activities was challenged.

Noting that “at the heart of the life of our parish communities is the Sunday Mass”, the bishops said they were encouraged “to see a return to full public worship in our parishes” and the resumption of all church and community life.