News - February 2021

Global Catholicism in the 21st Century is vastly different than Global Catholicism in the 20th century. In 1920, the English Catholic, Hilaire Belloc could acclaim that, “ The Church is Europe and Europe is the Church.” But today the majority of the Christian population shifts from Europe and North America to the Global South, Africa and Latin America. In 1910 Europe was home to roughly two-thirds of the world’s Christians (66.6 percent) but by 2010 that number had dropped to 25.5 percent, and is projected to drop to 15.6 percent by 2050. One reason is diminishing fertility. Europe has the lowest fertility rate of any global region. Another factor is religious switching, or people ceasing to practice religion. In 12 out of 21 European countries studied, most young people said they have no religion. The percentage of practicing Catholics has diminished strongly in the Netherlands. Also, largely because of the sex abuse scandal, mass attendance in Ireland that once was around 90 percent of the Catholic population has dropped to about 30 percent.

With the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes coming up, I wanted to add my own reflections on my experience at Lourdes. I have visited at various times Fatima, Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City and Lourdes. In my judgment, Lourdes was the most interesting and spiritually enriching experience. I went to Lourdes in the summer of 1973 when I spent the entire summer in France after living in Amsterdam for two and a half years while writing my doctoral dissertation in sociology. I stayed with a California Jesuit (and a former teacher of mine) Maurice Belval in Paris, and he suggested we go together to visit Lourdes. We spent two days there.

On February 6, the Church celebrated the memorial of St. Paul Miki, S.J., and Companions. In 1597, 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki.