Catholic Church collapsing.London -- The English Catholic bishops have released a study which shows the steep decline of the Catholic Church in England, the greatest crisis in the Church since the 16th century Reformation Reformation, religious revolution that took place in Western Europe in the 16th cent. It arose from objections to doctrines and practices in the medieval church (see Roman Catholic Church) and ultimately led to the freedom of dissent (see Protestantism). ripped out the Catholic faith during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I Elizabeth I, queen of England Elizabeth I, 1533–1603, queen of England (1558–1603). Early Life The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she was declared illegitimate just before the execution of her mother in 1536, but in . The report gathered statistics from the period 1963 to 1991, the years following Vatican II Noun 1. Vatican II - the Vatican Council in 1962-1965 that abandoned the universal Latin liturgy and acknowledged ecumenism and made other reforms Second Vatican Council Vatican Council - each of two councils of the Roman Catholic Church , which ended in 1965. At that time England had four million Catholics. Adult conversions have fallen by 55% and first Communions The First Communion (First Holy Communion) is a Roman Catholic ceremony. It is the colloquial name for a person's first reception of the sacrament of the Eucharist. Roman Catholics believe this event to be very important, as the Eucharist is one of the central focuses of the Roman by nearly 40%. Mass attendance has declined by 40% and Catholic marriages by 60% over the same time period. Recent statistics from 2001 show little improvement. In 1991 Mass attendance in England and Wales England and Wales are both constituent countries of the United Kingdom, that together share a single legal system: English law. Legislatively, England and Wales are treated as a single unit (see State (law)) for the conflict of laws. stood at 1.3 million; in 2004 it was 960,000 (Zenit, July 2006). Another survey by the British organization Christian Research, shows that the decline in Mass attendance is continuing, with about 800,000 attending Mass on a regular basis in 2006. Churchgoers are significantly older on average than the British population, and there is a progressive decline in belief as age drops. Less than 10% go to church in the 20-29 age group, and this falls to 5% in the 15-19 group. |
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