New Entrants of EU Bring back Christian faith to Europe

The European Union (EU) is ready to expand on Saturday May 1st. It is going to incorporate 10 new countries coming from central and Eastern Europe.

The new arrivals, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, will increase the EU's membership to 25 countries.

It is encouraging because most of these new entrants have a stronger Christian faith background than the original EU members in its Western counterparts. "In the 10 new member states, the number of believers is much higher than in the majority of western countries," said Tadeusz Szawiela, a religious sociologist at Warsaw University.

From Poland and Slovakia in central Europe, to Lithuania in the Baltics and the Mediterranean island of Malta, the new EU entrants all have more people practicising religion than the current EU members.

Even current EU members with large numbers of Catholics or Protestants, practice their faith less than their eastern counterparts.

While 31 percent of Dutch people, for example, say they are Catholic, only eight percent of them are practising, while 21 percent stated they were Protestants, only nine percent go to church.

France and Belgium, countries with large Roman Catholic populations, have had to bring in priests from central Europe due to a lack in their homelands.

Slovakia has gone through a religious revival since the 40 years of persecution by communist authorities. The number of people belonging to a Christian religion, mainly Roman Catholicism, increased by 11 percent over the past 10 years, to 84 percent of the population in 2001.

Christian leaders in Europe and America have been challenged by secularisation in Christendom in the wake of declining number of churchgoers. The threat arises by many means but the most significant one might be the conflict between the secular politics’ governance and Christian values.

The debates on gay clergy ordination, abortion, civil union and so on have shown the risk of secularisation in Europe, which used to have a very strong Christian heritage. In early March, the Pope also drew the attention of EU leaders to Christian heritage in Europe before they make the first constitution.

Through the new EU entrants, millions of Christians will bring their faith with them, hoping the prosperity membership can help to lower the risk of secularisation.

But on other pessimistic scenarios, in the run-up to EU enlargement, religious leaders have expressed fears that people might lose their faith as they become richer and more attached to the consumer society.

"Countries like Poland, Malta, Slovakia or Lithuania, will they follow the example of Ireland, where we have seen a decrease in religiousness, once the traditionally Catholic country has gained prosperity," sociologist Szawiela said.

"If wealth comes suddenly, secularism will follow. If, however, the standard of living improves gradually, which will probably be the case, the churches should keep their faithful," he said.