The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-08-16
The Church In Europe
Are European Catholics Lax,
Strict Or Just Different!
by Erik v. KvehneIf-Leddihn

The moderator Of a Newman Club in a big Eastern University
writes me that many undergraduate students ~ nap 10 essu ~ ~
an attitude at the University which makes a real dlstlnction Pc
tween European Catholicism and American Catnoncasm, ne
European being much more liberal in the sense u q y
priest in question did not say whether he shares this view or not.
Is it a correct and fair one? The answer is extremely difficult
because the views, the attitudes, the morality, and the pracuse
of the Faith of Catholics in Europe vary not only from country
to country but from region to region. Some readers may remen1-
Der an article about Professor LIE Bras Work on the rain IN
rural France, where there are areas with over 20 percent ana
Others with less than 10 percent practising Catholics. Yet
the exact percentage of practice is not a completely rellanle IN.
dication for the laxty or strength of the Faith. 1t S a valuable mint
mo more. | know people who go to Mass every o pun -
go to the Sacraments with fair regularity, and who sun nave un-
charitable, loveless, dour, and fundamentally "un-Chrlsuah cnar'
acters.
1t is better to look at the problem the other way round. Why
do superficial visitors to the European Continent believe that
the Faith here is flax" as compared with America tandor Ire
land)? Where does this impression come from! To what extent
is it based on facts? And to what extent could it be said to nave
any real foundation?
First of all let me tell you that one cannot be too severe
with the snap judgments Of tourists and shorttrme residents.
1t took me several years of life in America to understand any
thing about the United States, a nation far more uniform ana lar
more transparent than any of its European counterparts. A few
weeks ago | talked to an American Monslgnor who Is IN charge
of an American seminary in Southern Europe; he told me that
a minority of his charges, after several years of residence, con-
tinue to dislike, if not despise, the manifestations of the Faith
characteristic of that area. They're just hopeless" he remarked
sadly. "t was a mistake to send them over here" SO If these
young men, students for the priesthood, arrive at such a negative
judgment, what can we expect from a liberal Protestant or from
an agnostic university professor who meets and talks with, let US
say. five or ten dozen Continental Catholics - which is nothing?
Problem numbero one is the question as to what constitutes and
who is a Catholic on the Continent. The Church considers every per.
son who is baptized in the Catholic Faith and never openly repudiat-
ed it as a Catholic. And so does almost everybody who has not
severed his ties with the Church. Now, how about a divorced
and remarked Catholic? Of course he Cor she) is living IN sin,
yet in Austria or Germany such a person is liable to pay a Churcn
tax - unless or until he has formally left the Church. This, how
ever, will happen only in rare cases. In other words: the lndlvid.
uals, the Church, and the state everybody concerned = Will
cooperate in putting down a persons status as Catholic, regard
less of his practice of the Faith. (The same thing, naturally hap
pens in Protestant Northern Europe, Holland being the exceptlou)
Thus, if Mrs. F. X. Connolly or Professor Owen D. Forsythe,
when talking to the janior of the Excelsior Hotel in Paris, Rome,
Munich, Vienna, or Madrid find out that he al processes to be a
Catholic, but b goes to Mass only four times a year VI tnau,
they both will come to the conclusion that European Catholics
are lax" The same man in America would, in all likelihood, no
longer figure as a Catholic; he would cease to be on the Parish
register, Not in Europe, though. His children Outside Of France)
would get a Catholic education and have every chance OF becon'
ing practising Catholics. Chance, of course, does not mean Ger.
tainty) We distinguish between "inactiye," occasionally practis-
ing" and "fully practising" Catholics. If we mention a "lapsed
Catholic" we, imply that he Joined another faith
Here 7 would like to mention in parenthesis, that these
European terms are perfectly legitimate.
think this difference in Terminology accounts for the greater
part of the misunderstanding. If we in Europe considered only
the active Catholics as Catholics, then we could present a picture
almost as magnificent as that of the Church in America.