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Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church
Times Online ^ | February 15, 2007 | Ruth Gledhill

Posted on 02/15/2007 8:58:50 AM PST by NYer

Roman Catholicism is set to become the dominant religion in Britain for the first time since the Reformation because of massive migration from Catholic countries across the world.

Catholic parishes will swell by hundreds of thousands over the next few years after managing years of decline, according to a new report, as both legal and illegal migrants enter the country.

It says that the influx of migrants could be the Catholic community’s “greatest threat” or its “greatest opportunity”.

While in some places the Catholic Church has responded positively, in others it has been “overwhelmed” by the scale of the challenge. The growth of Catholicism in Britain comes as the established Church of England and the Anglican provinces in Scotland, Wales and Ireland face continuing, if slow, decline. Average Sunday attendance of both churches stood even at nearly one million in 2005, according to the latest statistics available for England and Wales, but the attendance at Mass is expected to soar.

A Church of England spokesman said: “I don’t think you can talk in terms of decline in the Church of England. It is fairly clear that with small fluctuations the worshipping population of the Church of England is 1.7 million a month. That is actually a stable figure.”

The report describes how many migrants have few or no documents, little or no English, no job to go to and nowhere to live.

The Catholic Church is the first port of call for thousands when they find themselves in difficulty, with up to 95 per cent from countries such as Poland being practising Catholics. Some churches find that they are being used as both job centres and social welfare offices. Most of the migrants settle in London, where some parishes are putting on Sunday Masses from 8am to 8pm to cope, the report, carried out by the Von Hugel Institute at Cambridge, found.

The report calls on the Catholic hierarchy to act urgently to help the migrants and their hard-pressed clergy by investing thousands of pounds in new resources.

Officially the Church is welcoming the migrants, but nearly all bishops and clergy have been taken by surprise by the influx, which took off last year and has yet to be reflected in official Mass attendance and membership figures.

But they acknowledge that the immigration is changing the face of Catholicism across Britain.

From being an Irish-English church in a mindset of managing steady decline, the Church has within the space of 12 months found itself having to countenance an unprecedented expansion and change in its ethnic make-up.

Figures for 2005 show that there are 4.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, under one fifth the 25 million baptised Anglicans and double the number of Muslims.

But the real Mass attendance figure is higher by many hundreds of thousands. Precise numbers are impossible to obtain because of the irregular status of so many of the migrants, who prefer to keep a low profile. Some would only talk to researchers for the report through their priests, and some clergy even refusedto be interviewed for fear of attracting attention.

But the head of the Polish vicariate told The Times that the number of Poles in London had doubled since their country’s EU accession to at least 600,000. According to the report, the number recorded attending Mass represents a fraction of the total number of baptised Catholic migrants now in London.

The Catholic dioceses of Brentwood, Southwark and Westminster, which cover Essex, London and Kent, commissioned the report to investigate the needs of migrants in London after a Mass in Westminster last May gave an indication of the scale of the change.

Researchers at Cambridge surveyed 1,000 migrants from diocesan parishes, ethnic chaplaincies and the Polish vicariate, ran focus groups and interviewed clergy.


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KEYWORDS: anglican; catholic; religion
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1 posted on 02/15/2007 8:58:54 AM PST by NYer
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To: Lady In Blue; Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


2 posted on 02/15/2007 8:59:26 AM PST by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: sionnsar; Huber

Anglican ping!


3 posted on 02/15/2007 9:00:44 AM PST by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: NYer; monkapotamus; All

OH MONK


4 posted on 02/15/2007 9:00:58 AM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: NYer

So who is James II closest living descendant?


6 posted on 02/15/2007 9:01:08 AM PST by mainepatsfan
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To: mainepatsfan

The Queen herself is descended from James I. I think.


7 posted on 02/15/2007 9:13:09 AM PST by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: NYer
Roman Catholicism is set to become the dominant religion in Britain for the first time since the Reformation because of massive migration from Catholic countries across the world.

Accurate observation, inaccurate conclusion. Frankly, Catholicism isn't exactly a hotbed of religious zeal these days, but compared to Anglicanism, it seems like a meeting of the Southern Baptist convention. This trend is a direct result of the failure of the church of england as a going concern. Is the archbishop of canterbury a wiccan these days?
8 posted on 02/15/2007 9:15:51 AM PST by Old_Mil (http://www.gohunter08.com/)
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To: RobbyS

I believe she is as well I just wonder if there isn't a closer relative to James II out there than her.


9 posted on 02/15/2007 9:17:05 AM PST by mainepatsfan
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To: mainepatsfan
So who is James II closest living descendant?

This guy, apparently: Franz, Duke of Bavaria

10 posted on 02/15/2007 9:18:29 AM PST by CT-Freeper (Said the perpetually dejected Mets (and, yes, sometimes Jets) fan.)
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To: CT-Freeper

Somehow I don't see him landing in Scotland anytime soon.


11 posted on 02/15/2007 9:21:12 AM PST by mainepatsfan
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To: NYer

Interesting. English culture and society must be in a bit of a turmoil these days.


12 posted on 02/15/2007 9:21:21 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: ahadams2; Way4Him; Peach; Zippo44; piperpilot; ex-Texan; ableLight; rogue yam; neodad; Tribemike; ..
Thanks to NYer for the ping.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
More Anglican articles here.

Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

13 posted on 02/15/2007 9:39:35 AM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: Old_Mil
Is the archbishop of canterbury a wiccan these days?

Druid, not wiccan. But he's also a bit in the refiner's fire these days and we'll have to wait to see what comes out.

14 posted on 02/15/2007 9:42:50 AM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: mainepatsfan; RobbyS

I should hope so!

Wikipedia....

Ancestry

Main articles: Descent of Elizabeth II and Ancestry of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth is the daughter of George VI), the second eldest son of George V and Queen Mary, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth, and, after her daughter's accession to the throne, the Queen Mother, the daughter of Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his wife, Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck, the Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

Queen Elizabeth is the male-line great-granddaughter of Edward VII, who inherited the crown from his mother, Queen Victoria. His father, Victoria's consort, was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; hence Queen Elizabeth is a patrilineal descendant of the German princely house of Wettin. She has Danish roots also in the main lines, and her lineage includes figures as diverse as Armenian princes, Mongol warriors and Muslim leaders.[41]

Other notable members of the princely house are King Albert II of Belgium and former King Simeon II of Bulgaria. Through Victoria (as well as several other of her great-great-grandparents), she is descended from many English monarchs extending back to the House of Wessex in the 7th century, and from the Scottish royal house, the House of Stuart, and its predecessors, which can be traced back to the 6th century. There is a direct line of descent from William the Conqueror to Queen Elizabeth. As a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she is related to the heads of most other reigning and non-reigning European royal houses such as the former Hohenzollern royal houses of Germany and Romania. Through her great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, she is descended from the Danish royal house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a line of the North German house of Oldenburg, and one of the oldest in Europe ; other members are the Duke of Edinburgh, Margrethe II of Denmark, Harald V of Norway, Queen Sofia of Spain, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and former King Constantine II of Greece, who are also all descended from Queen Victoria. She is further related to all ruling hereditary monarchs of Europe, as a descendant of Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange (1687 – 1711), common ancestor to all reigning European royal houses.


15 posted on 02/15/2007 11:07:50 AM PST by Frank Sheed ("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." --G.K. Chesterton)
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To: sionnsar

So do you think that England is on the road to becoming a Catholic and Muslim society? Should be interesting, huh...


16 posted on 02/15/2007 11:38:05 AM PST by technochick99 (www.YourDogStuff.com)
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To: NYer

St Thomas More, St Edmond Campion, thou art vindicated!

"In condemning us, you condemn your own ancestors, you condemn all the ancient Bishops and Kings, you condemn all that was once the glory of England." -- St Edmund Campion, 20 November 1581


17 posted on 02/15/2007 3:03:59 PM PST by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: Old_Mil

The Archbishop is certainly not wiccan. The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church we're not so sure about. :-)


18 posted on 02/15/2007 3:45:11 PM PST by Huber (And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. - John 1:5)
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To: CT-Freeper

I thought all Stuart line were all dead


19 posted on 02/15/2007 3:53:08 PM PST by SevenofNine ("We are Freepers, all your media belong to us, resistence is futile")
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To: NYer

>> But the head of the Polish vicariate told The Times that the number of Poles in London had doubled

The Poles never get the credit they so much deserve. Good to hear positive migration news.


20 posted on 02/15/2007 4:02:14 PM PST by Gene Eric
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