with all the Catholic immigrants arriving in Britain, what affect will this have on our national identity?

Question

with the reformation of the 16C, England then Britain as a whole became a Protestant State. this was enforced by 'The Glorious Revolution' of 1688 and the Act of Succesion/Settlement of 1701. With the growing population of Roman Catholics, of whom, fall under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome, what effect will this have on the Protestant and Atheist British public who have already had to give way to our ever growing Muslim Community?. and could we be building a rod for our own back? A Multi-Cultural Scociety will only work if there is respect for eachothers communities; Do you feel that your Community and Cultural beliefs are treated equal to the others? I'm an Atheist, so it doesn't effect me directly, but I don't wish my Country to go backwards religiously. we have all seen the devastation created by religious zealots within our cities, could this just be the beggining of a new religious revolution?

I am in no way a racist, I just feel that the growing religious communities of England could cause problems later down the line, more so when we now live in the age of, home grown, religious zealots and terrorists

stats out this week show that nearly half a million people have left Britain in the last 12 months, mostly due to Immigration.

alan read your history!

my point is, that religious diversity could one day lead to segregation, and it is not going to be long before we have either a Muslim or Catholic Prime-Minister, this wouldhave a relevant affect on British Identity. I have used both Catholic and Muslims in this question so as not to create a situation where it could be construed as a racist rant. which it is not! it is just A THOUGHT

Answer 1

I am in London after an absence of over a year and am overwhelmed by the numbers of foreigners in the streets, on public transport...everywhere. It is not surprising that over one in four of children born in the UK are of foreign parentage. In London, one would imagine, the proportion is substantially higher. It occurs to me that if I were to make a British joke/wisecrack/comment/quotation from a nursery rhyme such as "Humpty Dumpty" people wouldn't understand me, still less if I were to quote from the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. The thought is very unsettling. There is no pride in our heritage. History and geography have been eliminated from the school syllabus and even the English literature syllabus seems to consist of Commonwealth rather than English writings. In the past when people have settled in our country (leaving aside the various invasions which Britain has suffered from the Romans, Vikings, Angles, Saxons and Normans) they have accepted our culture and adapted to it. Now the emphasis seems to be on accepting the cultures of everyone else and abandoning our own. Thanks to immigration, Catholics have for a good number of years outnumbered Protestants, so the imbalance is already there. It will not be long before Christians are outnumbered by Moslems. When we are criticised by the strangers in our midst, we have to take it on the chin. If we dare criticise anything in their culture or creed, then we are accused of racism. I share your misgivings about promoting the Moslem culture and system of beliefs and I think that the time is fast approaching when even our political leaders will wake up to the reality of what they have achieved by not implementing our immigration laws and realise the folly of their actions. It will by then be too late. I fear that your misgivings are all too justified.

Answer 2

Even in my childhood I can remember the Protestant -Catholic divide within the community. As a C of E my father forbade me to go into a Catholic Church. Yet my best friend was a Catholic and this was tolerated. It wasn't until I was much older and went to Rome that I first entered a Catholic building, St Peters (awe inspiring).
I think our national identity is a lot stronger than most people give credit for. As a race we are not naturally demonstrative, so this does not emerge in the most obvious ways. We are apt to hide it along side other emotions under a practised veneer.
We to have our extremists like the BNP, etc. who we find equally abhorant as any other fundementalists.
I have a theory that beneath the Christian blanket the British Isles is Pagan at the core. I don't mean that we are all into occult practises, but it something to do with the green and pleasant land and the seasonal weather. We recognise nature within our spirituality and express it through art.
It comes through in our literature and our music,etc. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury is or was an arch druid.
Protestant religion worked because it stripped away the heavy Catholic trappings. But not even this could suppress the seasonal festivals of Harvest, Yuletide, Oestre, etc.
I personally am not happy with any form of repressive dogma or doctrine, but also recognise the need for others to follow, be guided or belong.
As long as it does not affect my human liberties I am content.
Let others chain themselves to one belief or another, I am free to commune with my God in a church at an altar or in a field under a tree. This is what makes me so British. This has not changed for generations, the Muslims and the Catholics and whoever else will just have to tolerate our primal hearts.

Answer 3

Most English people have given up on practising their faith. With all the Catholic immigrants adding to the numbers and a possible return of the Anglicans to the Catholic faith, Catholicism will again be the majority faith.

Consider what is happening in Northern Ireland with the Catholic population outgrowing the Protestant numbers by not using birth control.
Eventually the Catholics will have the numbers to shift the votes until the whole of GB is united under the same faith.
There could be a united Ireland in the next few generations.
The once great empire is now a memory.

Answer 4

If by Catholic immigrants you are referring to the recent influx of Polish people, from what i see of them they don't seem any more Catholic than the average British person is Anglican. They may go to church once a year, if that, or for weddings and funerals, but otherwise they are not really practicing Catholics. They behave just like non-religious people.

Modern Europe is, at the present time, overwhelmingly secular, even anti-religious. See for example the efforts by the Vatican and Catholic politicians to get God or Christianity mentioned in the EU Constitution - the Europeans were not having it.

It will take something drastic to cause a new religious revolution, or to cause society at large to become more religious, something like massive social uphevals, disasters, coupled with the appearance of miracle workers who do miracles that will make even Richard Dawkins become a believer.

As for problems with militant Islam, that is largely tied to British support for US foreign policy which is seen as anti-Islam and even a new Christian Crusade. It is also not helped by an increase in racist and islamophobic attitudes in the population, which makes Muslims feel that they cannot integrate or be accepted as belonging to their country and heightens their sense of alienation. If you look at other European countries that are not involved in the American wars, say Switzerland or Norway or Sweeden which has received a huge number of Iraqi refugees, they have much less, if any, problem with Muslim terrorists.

Answer 5

Catholics have been moving into Britain for centuries(mostly Irish) and their Catholic descendants are as british as anyone else.
The Catholic immigrants from Eastern Europe also are interested in fitting in and their Catholic principles and devotion to hard work will be a great asset to Britain.
There are also Catholic migrants from the Carribean,Africa ,Latin America and Asia.
The Muslim,Sikh and Hindu communities are "less European' cultural and value systems than Catholics do
Fear of the Pope of Rome is very outdated IMHO
Most of the immigrants that I know of any type want to keep their home cultures but want to fit in to Britain fully.

Answer 6

Very good point. Let's face it, you can't BE a Christian in Britain today. Look at the outcry about the girl at BA wearing a teensy wee cross - and yet people from other religions were wearing THEIR garb. Then there's the town councils etc who think it's insulting to OTHER religions to have CHRISTMAS so they rename it Winter Festival. As I've said before, I don't blame the (for the moment) minorities. I blame the bloody PC brigade because what they are doing is reverse racism. Within a decade, the indigenous population of GB will be the minority. I don't intend that to be racist but if people take it like that, amen

Answer 7

The Catholics fall under Rome/Pope's jurisdiction only when their religious beliefs are concerned..obviously they must abide by Brittish law in every day life.

People and the governments need to take active roles in building up understanding and tolerance on all levels in order to avoid more revolutions or wars.

Answer 8

Respecting freedom of religion is going forward not backward.

The entire world agreed to include freedom of religion in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. See Article 2: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

The citizens of the United States think this freedom is just as important as the freedoms of speech or the press. All are part of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html

The Catholic Church seeks and supports the freedom of religion for all human beings.

In the Vatican II document, Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae (Human Dignity), the Church states:

The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.

For the entire document, see: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

I think that's the sad thing about the world today. There are people that are selfish, intolerant, nonrespectable, etc... And the numbers seem to be increasing. One of the things I loved about living in California (I lived there for 11 years) and in England was the diversity. It helped me to see people for them rather than what their beliefs were. That's what keeps this world interesting... our differences.

As far as religion, like I was saying, the thing that disappoints me is when people twist things for their own selfish reasons. As you know history, people have used God's name and religion as an excuse to hate, fight, destroy, conquer, etc... for their own greed and their own glory. That still goes on today. Even on this Q&A. There is so much hate and intolerance and no respect. If people truly lived their religion, you wouldn't have had all of the fighting in Ireland, the Middle East, etc... Christ never taught violence and even lived it by example. When people quit mingling their own philosophies (and other's) with the scriptures, stop making their own interpretations for their own gain, and start living their religion, then there would be more love, respect, tolerance, nonjudgmental, selflessness, service, etc... no matter what you believed in. You don't have to be religious to believe in these sacred principles.

Answer 10

It had not occured to me that there was a problem associated with catholics coming into the country. Do you have any data to back up this statement?

Many years ago I used to hear that we would be over-run by Catholics, but that was due to their not being allowed to use contraception and hence producing large families.