Catholicism Most Popular in Britain
Tony Blair’s conversion to Catholicism has raised the interest among the British about this religion. A recent survey revealed that Catholic churches in Britain have marginally higher weekly church attendance that Anglican churches, 862,000 v 852,000 respectively.
500 years after Catholicism was was banned by King Henry VIII, it has once again become the major religion in Britain. Recall that in the early 1500s, Britain was entirely Catholic, as Anglicanism or Protestantism didn’t exist yet. Dare I say that the Holy Spirit is guiding this development, since there is no such thing as coincidence?
The interesting question is why Anglicanism is declining but Catholicism is increasing. The answer is not all that thrilling. The rise in Catholic church attendance is in large part played by the increased number of immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe. The study revealed also that both churches face declining attendance but the Catholic church is buoyed by the presence of immigrants.
Hence we see that the native or non-immigrant population have shunned religion and become more secular than Americans, where church attednace stands close to 40% as opposed for the British at 6%.
There are some who are also concerned that Mr. Blair while in office took a very non-Catholic stance on several issues like embryonic stem cell research, gay unions and abortion. However the good news is that he did all this while not being a Catholic. That was a past life of his and Catholic theology teaches that the past is forgiven upon baptism or confirmation, which is what Tony Blair had to undergo to enter the Catholic faith as an adult.
