Europe steadily less Catholic
• Catholic
If only I'd understood when I was young. I'd have fled to Europe, most likely Holland.
But the diminishing place of the Roman Catholic Church in the lives of Europeans is one of the reasons that the mostly conservative African and Latin American Cardinals will continue to have more power in the church hierarchy.
During his 26-year papacy, John Paul II used the force of his personality in dozens of trips around the Continent to try to bring back European Catholics who had fallen away.
It was a disappointing exercise.
Among Catholics, only 10 percent in the Netherlands, 12 percent in France, 15 percent in Germany and Austria, 18 percent in Spain and 25 percent in Italy attend Mass weekly