Immigrants 'overwhelm' UK Catholic churches

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/15/ncath115.xml

Catholic churches are struggling to cope with huge numbers of new worshippers arriving in Britain from Eastern Europe, according to a new report.

In at least three London parishes, more than three-quarters of those attending Mass were found to be immigrants, while others are using churches as job centres and social welfare offices.

It is not known exactly how many Catholic worshippers are now in Britain, because of the unknown number of illegal immigrants, but their numbers are expected to rise by hundreds of thousands over the next few years while Church of England congregations face a slow decline.

Researchers at the Von Hugel Institute at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, interviewed 1,000 migrants as well as members of the clergy to find out how the Church is being transformed by mass immigration from countries such as Poland, where up to 95pc of new arrivals to Britain are practising Catholics. Their report states: "The Catholic Church is undergoing a shift in its ethnic make-up, social diversity and relationship with the rest of the international Catholic community. "Regular and irregular migration into Britain is a key driver of this process.

[LuckyLib]

1. Isn't that what churches want? More faithful on their doorstep? You'd think they'd be delighted!

[Benhurst]

3. The poor you shall have with you always.

It's the fat cats you want to see coming through the front door.

[T_i_B]

7. Mostly they are delighted!

It's just that many Catholic Churches are a bit on the small side and as such may find a large congregation a bit of a heavy task, as has already been mentioned in this thread.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I believe the problem is...

1) The Church of England is the official state religion of the UK. While the vast majority of Brits are not regular church-goers, and dilution of the influence of the CoE is seen as bad (officially, at least.)

2) For historic reasons, Roman Catholics have long been hated, even persecuted, in Britain. Increasing numbers of Catholics will fuel anti-immigrant hatred.

3) Because of (1) and (2), Roman Catholic parish churches have generally been small. The sudden influx of new members means these churches do not have the facilities to meet everyone's needs.

4) Most of the immigrants head toward the cities. Because of the very tight living spaces and the crowd of historic buildings, it is next to impossible to expand existing churches. Because of the very high cost of property even outside the cities, it is very difficult to relocate to larger facilities or to build new churches.

5) Most of the immigrants do not speak English, or speak it only poorly. That makes it difficult to address their needs for religious and spiritual services.

6) Many of the immigrants are poor. While Britain has a decent social services system, immigrants will not qualify for most benefits until they become citizens. Traditionally their faith community has provided assistance during the interrim, but the large number of people asking for help has spread available resources very thin.

The last item can probably be mitigated by appealing to the Catholic Church as a whole. I expect that the issue of priests is being addressed by finding, training and ordaining suitable candidates from the immigrant communities, but that will take time and probably is not happening fast enough. The other issues... not really very much can be done about those.

[JerseygirlCT]

4. I think the issue of a priest shortage will inevitably play into this

There aren't enough to go around. So yes, given that the RCC will stubbornly stick to its guns WRT women and married people in the priesthood, they're going to have to get very active indeed in recruiting and training new priests.

As a former Catholic, that will be interesting to watch.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The logical solution would be for some Polish priests to come too

because you'd think there might be a few churches in Poland with diminished congregrations. In practice, it sounds like it's the churches in certain urban areas that have had a large influx. I'd think sending a few curates from the areas in Britain with less Catholic immigrants would solve the problem.

[Dorian Gray]

6. Do the British

still have a ban on a Roman Catholic becoming Prime Minister?

I think your analysis on why this might be deemed a problem for the British, Tech, is right on target.

[T_i_B]

8. I'm pleased to say No

It's only on Roman Catholics becoming Monarch, and that rule should be consigned to the history books anyway.

[Dorian Gray]

9. Thanks for the response...

I had heard that it was the law at one time, but was uncertain whether it remained the law. :)