Survey of pastoral attitudes, beliefs

The following letter will be sent to parishioners shortly asking them to take part in a survey to establish pastoral attitudes.

There are significant changes taking place in Irish society at the present time and those changes have an impact on the Parish of Kilcullen. For instance, the population of the Parish in the 2002 census was 4,000 and the population in the 2006 census was 6,500, an increase of nearly two thirds. These changes bring excitement and opportunity, but they also bring challenges and difficulties. On foot of these changes the Parish Pastoral Council is conducting research on the needs of the Parish at the present time in order to be able to plan well for the future.

This research will take the form of a guided listening survey. We aim to interview one hundred people who are representative of the Parish community as a whole. Your name has been chosen as one of the one hundred.
We plan to conduct interviews during the month of March. The interview will be informal, will take approximately one hour and will be tape-recorded. During the interview we will ask you a number of general questions on your attitude towards the priests, the Parish, the Church, the community, social issues that arise in the community, prayer and belief, God and Jesus Christ.

As part of the objective of the research, a report will be compiled from the findings, which will be analysed by an independent researcher from outside the Parish, and which will serve as a reference for future planning in the Parish.

Participation in the interview will be voluntary, confidential and anonymous.

In order to facilitate the interview it will be necessary to arrange a time, a venue and a date with you. In the course of the next week or so one of our interviewers will be in touch with you to make arrangements, should you wish to take part.

On behalf of the Pastoral Council I wish to thank you for reading this letter and to thank you also in anticipation, should you decide to take part in this important research project.

Howard Berney.
(Chairperson of the Pastoral Council.)