United Kingdom: The Catholic Church Launches a Campaign to Win Back the Non-Churchgoing

Bishops of United Kingdom.

On November 12, 2011, in York, the Catholic Church of England and Wales launched a communication campaign specially aimed at the baptized Catholics who no longer go to church.  It will consist in a series of meetings that should help the clergy and parishioners to re-evangelize non-practicing English Catholics.  The first reunion of this operation called “Crossing the Threshold” drew 140 people.  “There are probably people who would like to return to the Church, but do not know how to go about it.  They are afraid of being noticed, or of not doing it well,” declared the bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Bishop Kieran Conry, in a column of the British paper The Guardian, on November 12.  The operation will continue until June.  After York, it will pass through Birmingham (February), Crawley (March), Westminster (April) and Cardiff (June).

According to the French paper La Croix, between 4 and 5 million English Catholics, that is, more than two thirds of the baptized Catholics, are not practicing.  The Anglicans launched a similar campaign on September 25, 2011, with a large-scale operation called “Back to Church Sunday”.  (sources: apic/lacrois – DICI#245 Nov 25, 2011)