With major regime changes in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, we face the prospect of another sudden surge in Sharia law. Radical Islam is on the march, with renewed vigor. It’s assisted by the aid of pure demographics, especially compared to Christianity.
In 2009, the Pew Forum released a major study of world Islam. It estimated 1.57 billion Muslims worldwide, compared to 2.2 billion Christians. It’s only a matter of time before those numbers reverse themselves, as Muslims plainly continue to have babies and Christians do not, including in Catholic countries like Italy, Ireland, Spain, and France—where Catholics willfully thumb their noses at Church teaching.
This is an issue of faith and reproduction: Muslims follow God’s exhortation to be fruitful and multiply, filling the ends of the earth, while Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) wantonly reject God’s call.
A microcosm of all this is historically Catholic France. For a decade and a half now, I’ve told my students that it’s only a matter of time before practicing Muslims outdistance practicing Catholics in France. Well, according to an article in the current Catholic World Report, the time has arrived.
“Islamic mosques are being built more often in France than are Roman Catholic churches,” states Catholic World Report, citing data from the Hudson Institute, “and there are now more practicing Muslims in the country than practicing Catholics.” Over 40 million French call themselves Catholic, but less than two million actually practice their faith. By contrast, France has 4.5 million Muslims, but at least 2.5 million practice their faith.
There are 150 new mosques under construction in France, compared to only 20 new Catholic churches built in the previous decade. Worse, in the previous decade 60 Catholic churches were closed, some of them reconstituted as mosques.
Add in the most critical factor going forward—contracepting Catholics not reproducing themselves while Muslims do—and you face a France where the typical practicing believer is Muslim rather than Catholic.
It was only a matter of time.
When you flagrantly disobey the Church’s most fundamental teachings on human life, there are life-changing consequences.
For Catholic Exchange.com and Ave Maria Radio, I’m Paul Kengor.
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