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Christianity Faces Day Of Judgment: Church Fears Modern Beliefs Are Undermining Traditional Values

Martin Wainwright
Friday September 7, 2001

"My parish church is so cold, damp and little attended that I always wear my thickest coat - why, there are even fungi growing in great numbers round the communion table."

That was not Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor but a friend of Tennyson's in 1843, when Christianity's official hold over Britain looked every bit as shaky as the Catholic leader fears it is today.

But in spite of history's catalogue of empty churches and hopeless priests, the cardinal's warning that Christianity "has now almost been vanquished" is not being brushed aside as just the umpteenth re-run of a 2,000-year-old story. <<full story>>