Join the Conversation
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more
The Tablet (the one from London, not Brooklyn) carries this story in its latest issue:
The number of weekly Massgoers in France has dropped steeply from 20 per cent in 1972 to 4.5 per cent today. This was the most striking finding of a survey carried out by the IFOP polling organization between 2005 and 2009 for the daily Le Monde earlier this month.
The survey also indicated that the typical French Catholic is female, over 50, and politically right-wing.
The figures confirm the steady decline of Catholicism in France - even though it remains the dominant religion (64 per cent of the population describe themselves as Catholic, as opposed to 87 per cent in 1972).
It seems to be a story already reported many times. But I had to wonder if the real story got buried. Here's the last paragraph of The Tablet story:
That's the story I would like to read more about.
