I’m not sure why this bit of news shocks me — given the poor-to-God-awful state of catechesis here in the U.S., it’s par for the course — but it’s quite an eye-opener:

A new study has uncovered a surprising lack of religious knowledge among both Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Contradicting the impression that residents of Northern Ireland are generally more religious than their neighbors in the Irish republic, a survey by the Millward Brown Ulster firm found that the level of religious knowledge is roughly the same on both sides of the border.

The survey– the first of its kind in the region — found that Catholics in Northern Ireland show the same level of religious knowledge as those in the south. Among Protestants, however, the residents of Northern Ireland are less knowledgable. Overall, only 42% of the poll respondents knew that there are 4 Gospels, and just 54% could name the persons of the Trinity. The survey uncovered a striking decline in religious knowledge among younger respondents. On each question and most others, Catholics scored substantially higher results. Only 21% of those aged 16- 24 knew the number of the Gospels, and only 33% could identify the persons of the Trinity.

Commenting on the poll figures, Stephen Cave of the Evangelical Alliance of Northern Ireland said: “Overall the figures are not good but the drop in knowledge, almost halved within a generation, indicates that the Christian faith is becoming less meaningful to those under 25 years of age.” His colleague Sean Mullen of the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland added: “The notion that Christianity can be transmitted through the culture from one generation to the next is clearly no longer valid.”

The complete results of the survey are available at this link.