Catholicism Dying in France

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“…As secularisation takes an increasingly firm hold over French society, Catholic congregations are disappearing and the country’s ageing priests are dying…”

“…But priests are scarce in the Lot valley now, so scarce that Fr Bouzou has no fewer than 40 churches to look after. It would be a virtually impossible task, but for the fact that many of them have almost no congregation…”

“…One of the nuns tells me that the pews are now empty because of materialism and the breakdown in community life, but Fr Bouzou blames people’s aversion to belonging.”…

"…For decades, the Church in France has been living on borrowed time, relying on a body of priests whose average age has steadily increased. That time has suddenly run out.

Recent research suggests that French priests have become so old that half of them will die in the next eight years.
At Puy L’Eveque, Michel Cambon is Fr Bouzou’s nearest fellow priest. He is the only one who seems really angry about the crisis…"

“…Fr Cambon - who has more than 30 churches to look after - says his elderly congregation is dying out so rapidly that in 10 years there may be no church in Puy L’Eveque at all. …”

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4149645.stm
 
In 1981 Pope John Paul II visited France and asked this question: “France, eldest daughter of the Church, what have you done to your baptismal promises?”

France has many millions of baptised Catholics, yet they need to be re-awakened and re-introduced to their baptismal promise. The question of how to do that is the real problem at hand.
 
I’ve been reading Weigel’s bio of the JPII and one of the reasons that France has all but died to the Church is because the Church was at one time so powerfull and in cahoots with the monarchy. Even after the revolution the Church held great power over society.

I read it as a cautionary tale.
 
If they don’t revive the Church in France we all know which “faith” will then take over that nation. The nation of saints and shrines must find a way to re-awaken their faith. Then again all of us must look to the need of re-awakening the Christian/Catholic faith in our own backyards, if not our own hearts.

Linda H.
 
And in Belgium, and in Spain, etc, we have to pray a lot and begin to change the things, it´s difficult but the sadness isn´t a goo company, we have to face the challenges, although we believe that there were better times, greetings
 
As was pointed out, the problem is fairly universal. I just read an article on how Mass attendance has completely plummeted in Australia. Most Western nations that were predominately Catholic and/or Christian are aborting and contracepting themselves to the point that Christians will be in the minority in the next 100 years. Secularism, modernism, consumerism and nearly every other ‘ism’ is replacing religious faith. In my opinion, the only way out of this spiritual malaise is for God to intervene. We should pray fervently for the Church and that it will grow and prosper. We should pray for an increase in HOLY vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We should pray incessantly.
 
Perhaps its just me, but doesn’t all this de-Catholicizing Europe seem to coincide with the development of the EU?
 
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TPJCatholic:
Perhaps its just me, but doesn’t all this de-Catholicizing Europe seem to coincide with the development of the EU?
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Or the New World Order. I wonder if the Diocese of Paris has a Gay ministry, Bingo or a liberal fundelmentlist agenda that is helping things along?
 
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TPJCatholic:
Perhaps its just me, but doesn’t all this de-Catholicizing Europe seem to coincide with the development of the EU?
Click to expand...
It’s a two prong point of cultural change: initially you have to change the culture thus all these nations will be merged into one entity because all of them have deep Christian roots, cultural icons, celebrations, and linguistic references. Then you provide something to merge them into which has no reference to their true cultural heritage but you bind them to it financially, culturally and socially. A generation or two and you have a truly secularist society that can’t know where it is going since it does not recognize where its been.
 
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TPJCatholic:
Perhaps its just me, but doesn’t all this de-Catholicizing Europe seem to coincide with the development of the EU?
Click to expand...
While I think it would be easy to pin the blame on the lack of active faith in Europe on the begining of the EU, or even the new world order I believe it goes much further back than that. I think it most likely started in the 1960’s, the sexual revolution, and the more wide spread use of birth control. When we kick God out of our bedrooms and our marriages we start on a dangerous spiral of loss of faith.
Linda H.
 
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caroljm36:
I’ve been reading Weigel’s bio of the JPII and one of the reasons that France has all but died to the Church is because the Church was at one time so powerfull and in cahoots with the monarchy. Even after the revolution the Church held great power over society.

I read it as a cautionary tale.
Click to expand...
In the 50’s also Marxism took root in many places in France and we had friends who ceased attending church because it was even being preached from the pulpit. It had far reaching effects throught the country.
 
Missionaries need to go back to the lands from which they originated. The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have a friary in England and there are plans for them to expand throughout Europe. This is what must be done. A re-evangelization of Europe from the lands originally colonized by Europeans.

As for the expansion of Islam, that’s another thread in and of itself.
 
The Secularism, the eurabia connection, the franc-masonry and such things have affected Europe, we have to prepare apologetics for the divorced people, atheist, agnostic, islamic and non-catholic practising people in Europe, because the conversion is a Gift of God, but we have too the order of Jesus, go and spread the Gospel, greetings
 
When all looks bleak and everyone starts predicting the death of Christianity always remember:

2,000 years ago Christianity started with a total population of 1.

As long as that 1 survives so will his Church.🙂
 
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Norwich:
When all looks bleak and everyone starts predicting the death of Christianity always remember:

2,000 years ago Christianity started with a total population of 1.

As long as that 1 survives so will his Church.🙂
Click to expand...
Or look at what Pope St. Pius X said when he assumed the chair of Peter. It could have been written today.
 
Does anyone know whether Protestantism in Europe or in France specifically is suffering in the same way?

Fiat
 
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Fiat:
Does anyone know whether Protestantism in Europe or in France specifically is suffering in the same way?

Fiat
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Actually have years of decline, Protestantism in France is undergoing a recent revivial.

Back to the main topic of Catholicism in France, let us remember the words of Pius XI:

“The greatest scandal of the nineteenth century was the loss of the workers to the Church.”

He was right. During the industrial revolution, millions of Frenchmen left the villages where their families had lived for generations and moved to work in the factories. Whole cities of factory workers emerged, the greatest change in French life since Christianization.

And the French Church, in its indifference (unlike the more progressive German Catholics), did not even open parish churches in the new industrial centers. The episcopacy was tied to the old order and unconcerned about the workers. The Catholic rythem of village life had been disrupted and the church did nothing.

A grave mistake which we are paying for today.
 
Linda H.,

The EU actually began its development several years after World War II, it has been a work in progress for over fifty years–the same period of time that Europe has slowly lost its faith. At the heart of the EU is a desire for rabid secularism…the Pope pleaded to have the EU simply mention Europe’s Christian roots in its constitution, yet they refused. The leaders of the EU see the world as being served the best by being completely secular, with religion being pushed completely off the stage.
 
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