Gerald points us to an interesting article from The Times of London:
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.
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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. ... 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.
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[T]hey 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.
This puts a very interesting twist on the idea of Eurabia. Could it be, in fact, that migration of observant (and therein procreating) Catholics from Eastern Europe will form an offset to the migration and reproduction of Muslims from Africa and the Middle East? If you want to make like a weatherman (err, weatherperson) and make a projection from a minute amount of data, this seems like we're entering a population war, and the only two sides playing along are practicing Catholics and Muslims, and the future and culture of Europe is at stake.
One European imam was quoted as saying that Muslims would conquer Europe "with the wombs of our women". One does wonder if all those "breeders" the "enlightened" European intelligentsia complain about might not just be the salvation of the cultural patrimony they profess to love. Maybe it's an overstatement, maybe it's a foul concept to contemplate; I only ask because it does seem an interesting question - does population decide the Reformation (or Revolution as I'd see it), and does it offer us the start of another clash of civilizations, this time on the European continent, and, perhaps, at Lepanto? Just something to ruminate on...
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