CATHOLICISM RESURRECTION

It’s Sunday morning. Some people sleep longer to rest after a hard week at work. Some people pack their bags and drive outside the city for a picnic with family and friends. The others travel miles to crowd among hundreds of plumbers, builders, carpenters, bartenders, waitresses, cleaners and babysitters. Or, if the church is full, to kneel on the pavement during transubstantiation of bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood.

After decades of steadily declining congregations, Catholic Church in London is experiencing enormous boost in attendance and regular and irregular migration into Britain seems to be a key driver of this process.

Catholic population in Western Europe dropped as a result of consumerist lifestyle. Current social values, such as the cult of individual self-satisfaction, became a real obstacle for believers. The total number of monks and nuns in England and Wales stands at around 2,500. In 1982 a hundred women entered a convent but by 2004 the number has declined to seven.

Recently, Catholic congregations were restored and expanded mostly by a wave of migrants from the land of John Paul II who are expected to change English Catholicism for ever. Two thousands people from Central and Eastern Europe arrive at Victoria coach station every week making up nearly a half of all Catholics migrating to Britain. The other 53 per cent is roughly equally divided between Africans, Latin Americans and Asians. The report by Von Hugel Institute devoted to needs of migrants in London’s Catholic Community, The Ground of Justice, which was published in February found in total 70 different nationalities attending church at least once a week. British Catholicism is like a global village or like the United Nations gathering the faithful from Ireland, Ghana, Guyana, Columbia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Spain, Poland, Italy and many others. In some catholic churches today mass is spoken in number of different languages, including Chinese and Latin. In Catholic Society at Kingston University there are students from France, Nigeria, Trinidad, Sri Lanka, India…

It has become a fact that Catholic Church is overtaking Church of England as the most active and worshipping religious community in England and Wales. In Islington an Anglican church was converted into a block of flats while Polish Church of Our Lady of Chestochowa fills up to capacity. In Ealing, which is the largest Polish parish 5000 people attend seven masses each Sunday.

According to the report “current structures and policies of the Church are struggling to keep up with the changing pastoral reality.”

Catholicism in Britain is now facing the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge. In many cases Church has responded instinctively and positively but in others it has been overwhelmed by the scale of the new challenge.

In London bishops’ statement following the report Church Authorities expressed their awareness: “Migrants are very much the present reality of the Catholic Church in London and one of several sources of hope for the Catholic Church of the future too. In our view they are also a source of hope for the future of the nation.” One of the very first manifestations of that multicultural background of Church was the migrants Mass in May 2006 attracting many ethnic chaplaincies into Cathedra of Westminster.

Definitely, the profile of an average believer in London is changing rapidly. The Ground of Justice report reveals that migrant communities are maid up mostly of young people. Sixty five per cent of newcomers from Eastern Europe are below 35. The traditional picture of a family attending a Sunday mass tend to disappear as 40 per cent of arrivals are singles and in majority female. They are well-educated. A half of Africans have university qualifications, over a quarter of those coming from Eastern Europe have master degrees. And they plan to stay for longer.

Marcin Stetner, 28, a Pole who belongs to Cor et Lumen Christi community in Chertsey said: “We have been organizing retreats and courses for Poles for three years and those who I met three years ago used to unanimously talk about staying just for a little while, few months, maybe a year to save for a flat, help a family, study or learn English. But after three years they are still here. They get better jobs, bring families, review plans… I initially came for three months with my fiancée to see how the others live, what they do, and we liked it. That made us stay.”

Von Hugel Institute interviewed a thousand people attending masses in London’s three dioceses. A half of them arrived to the country in last five years. Report indicates different reasons for migration, such as EU enlargement, political change in South East Europe, economic crises in Latin America but work remains main motive for travelling to the UK. In fact, for many life in England mean only one word – work. The report describes catholic congregation as “a low wage, long hours community of Mass goers”. With 35 per cent earning less than £5 per hour, that means less than National Minimum Wage, 50 per cent work over 40 hours weekly and further 25 and 10 per cent, respectively, 46 and 56 hours.

Several patterns have been proved. Generally, wages go up along with level of education, language skills and time already spent in UK. Women tend to earn £1 less than men.

Report also touches the problem of poor living conditions and the issue of irregular immigration. According to World Bank only 22,5 per cent of migrants are irregular. The report triples that figure indicating that in some parishes in London three quarters of regulars at mass were irregular in this country.

Francis Davis, a project director, said: “We have been shocked by the need we uncovered… What is fascinating is that the more vulnerable this people are, the more devout they become and the more they look to their bishops to mobilise charity, government and their voices in the hour of need”.

What brings the faithful migrants to Church is not only “believingness” - the fulfilment of religious celebration, but also “belongingness” – having community with whom to engage.
“For me mess is mainly a meeting with God. I also go to Church because of Christian responsibility but it’s my conscious decision. In my case, social issue is third-rate,” commented Witold Dyrka, 26, who came to the UK in 2006 to do his third master degree at Kingston University.

The sense of affiliation, membership of catholic community or national Church becomes so important for the majority of newcomers who face the social and linguistic isolation. Forty one per cent of them don’t feel at home in Britain and Church is being described as “home away from home”.

“I think that only people form what I call home. I create my home along with my wife and children no matter where it is. But definitely, Poles in Polish Church feel closer to homeland, because of the language, Polish songs, paintings,” said Marcin Stetner, married for two years father of three-weeks-old Samuel and twenty-months-old Tymoteusz.

The Church Authorities must now realise what the expectations from Catholic Church in Britain are. The authors of Von Hugel Institute’s report bring a list of hopes arising among migrants community. Providing welfare services, access to legal advice on work, financial and immigration matters, helping people to find jobs and low-cost accommodation, providing English classes, financial support in case of emergency, preserving national culture and promoting ethnic parishes and building communities and social circles. These are high expectations driven by dramatic needs, this is a price that Church needs to pay for boosting statistics, the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge.

Asked, whether priests should help with both spiritual and worldly matters, Chancellor of Polish Catholic Mission, Father Tadeusz Kukla, said: “In those situations I request my Parisians to help, people well-meaning and with life-experience. A priest cannot concentrate on one persons needs because he is a coordinator of community. He links people to help each other.”

Is Catholic Church in Britain, facing recently such a big challenge, prepared to meet those new expectations? Father Kukla answers: “Since Poland entered EU in some pastoral centres in London the number of believers attending Sunday masses has doubled. People can’t get inside churches so they stand on the streets. We need new places with mass in Polish. So far we created centres in Greenford, Heston, Finchley Central, West Acton and Willesden Green… I think Polish Church is prepared for a big wave of newcomers.”

The situation, however, is looking worse outside London and in case English Catholic Church. “Priests are in general always very busy. For example, Father Vincent Flynn is a parish priest at St. Raphael’s Church, a Catholic Chaplain to Kingston University, a teacher in a catholic school and does some other things,” Witold Dyrka said.

In East Anglia which never before had immigrants from Central Europe Polish priests are spread thin, one to cover Devon and Cornwall, not many more in Wales. They spend their Sundays driving from one mass to another.

Researchers from Von Hugel Institute demand urgent actions from Catholic Authorites. Actions and deeds, not only ideas and words, are now needed. Rediscovered changing profile of Catholicism in Britain needs real-life solutions.

According to Ekklesia, Francis Davis said: “We have met vibrant and enthusiastic congregations with a passionate faith… This is a historic moment in the life of British Catholic Church.”