About 35%[1] of the population of Europe today is Catholic, but only about a quarter of all Catholics worldwide reside in Europe. This is due in part to the movement and immigration at various times of largely Catholic European ethnic groups (such as the Irish, Italians, Poles, Portuguese, and Spaniards) to continents such as the Americas and Australia. Furthermore, Catholicism has been spread outside Europe through both historical Catholic missionary activity, especially in Latin America, and the past colonization and conversion of native people by Catholic European countries, specifically the Spanish, Portuguese, French and Belgian colonial empire, in regions such as South America, the Caribbean, Central Africa and West Africa, and Southeast Asia.[2]
The Holy See and the European episcopal conferences
As the Vatican State is a theocracy, it cannot become a member of the European Union. However, traditionally there are very strong ties of the Holy See with the only neighboring country of the Vatican City, Italy and also with the European Union. Since 1970 the European Union accredits an official representative from the Holy See (an Apostolic Nuncio) to the EU. Even though the Vatican City is not an official member of the European Union, it has adopted the Euro as its currency and has open borders with the Schengen Area.
Statements of the Holy See and other dignitaries of the Catholic Church on the European integration
In 2016 Pope Francis was awarded with the Charlemagne prize. During his speech of thanks Pope Francis criticized a "crisis of solidarity"[3] in Europe and condemned "national self-interest, renationalization and particularism".[3]
In December 2018 Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising and former president of COMECE, called for a deeper European integration and condemned the harmful consequences of nationalism.[4][5][6]
The Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE)
The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (Latin: Commissio Episcopatuum Communitatis Europaeae; COMECE) is the association of Catholic Churchepiscopal conferences in member states of the European Union (EU) which officially represents those episcopal conferences at EU institutions.[8][9] COMECE bishops are delegated by Catholic episcopal conferences in EU member states and has a permanent Secretariat in Brussels, Belgium.[8][10] It was established in 1980 and replaced the European Catholic Pastoral Information Service (SIPECA, 1976–1980). Discussions during the 1970s about creating an episcopal conferences' liaison organization to the European Community led to the decision, on the eve of the 1979 European Parliament election, to establish COMECE.[11]
Important European Catholic lay organizations
European Catholic youth organizations
FimcapEurope (International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements): Fimcap is an umbrella organization for catholic youth organizations, especially for youth organizations which are based at parish level. (See also: Fimcap Europe)
MIJARC Europe (International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Youth): MIJARC Europe is a platform representing the catholic, agricultural and rural youth movements in Europe.
Other important Catholic lay organizations
CIDSE (International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity): CIDSE is an umbrella organization for Catholic development agencies from Europe and North America.
^"Who we are". comece.eu. Brussels, BE: Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community. Archived from the original on 2016-04-01. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
^"Our history". comece.eu. Brussels, BE: Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community. Archived from the original on 2016-05-03. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
Further reading
Bireley, Robert. The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450–1700: A Reassessment of the Counter Reformation (1999)
Burson, Jeffrey D., and Ulrich L. Lehner. Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History (2014)
Chamedes, Giuliana. A Twentieth-Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Catholic Europe (Harvard UP, 2019)
Gehler, Michael, and Wolfram Kaiser, eds. Christian Democracy in Europe since 1945 (Routledge, 2004)
Kent, Peter C. and J.F. Pollard, eds. Papal Diplomacy in the Modern Age (Praeger 1994),
Kselman, Thomas, and Joseph A. Buttigieg, eds. European Christian Democracy: Historical Legacies and Comparative Perspectives (Notre Dame University Press, 2003)
Kosicki, Piotr H. Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and “Revolution,” 1891-1956 (Yale University Press, 2018) multiple online reviews
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A history of expansion of Christianity. vol 4. The great century: in Europe and the United States of America; A.D. 1800-A.D. 1914 (1941)
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, I: The Nineteenth Century in Europe: Background and the Roman Catholic Phase (1969)
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, IV: The Twentieth Century in Europe: The Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Churches (1958)
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (2011)
Misner, Paul. Social Catholicism in Europe: From the Onset of Industrialization to the First World War (1991)