Now, in 1961, the Catholic population of England is still quite small (ten per cent, or 5 million); yet it represents a very considerable percentage of the churchgoing population. A Protestant woman marveled to me over the large crowds going in and out of the Birmingham Oratory (Catholic) Church on Sunday mornings. She found this a marvel because, as she said, only six per cent of English people are churchgoers. She may not have been exact on this number, but others here feel quite certain that the percentage would be less than ten. From many sides come remarks that Protestant churches are badly attended and the large medieval cathedrals look all but empty during services. A Catholic priest recently recounted how in the chapel of a large city university, following Anglican evensong, at which there was a congregation of twelve, he celebrated Mass before more than a hundred.

The Protestants themselves are the first to admit the great falling off in effective membership in their churches. According to a newspaper report of the 1961 statistics of the Church of England, the ``total of confirmed members is 9748000, but only 2887671 are registered on the parochial church rolls,'' and ``over 27 million people in England are baptized into the Church of England, but roughly only a tenth of them continue.'' An amazing article in the Manchester Guardian of last November, entitled ``Fate of Redundant Churches,'' states than an Archbishops' Commission ``reported last month that in the Church of England alone there are 790 churches which are redundant now, or will be in 20 years' time. A further 260 Anglican churches have been demolished since 1948.'' And in the last five years, the ``Methodist chapel committee has authorized the demolition or, more often, the sale of 764 chapels.'' Most of these former churches are now used as warehouses, but ``neither Anglicans nor Nonconformists object to selling churches to Roman Catholics,'' and have done so.