Religion returns to Europe's cities

WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- Faith has come back to Europe's cities, a top sociologist of religion said Monday, as the continent was still trying to make sense of school massacre committed by a student in Erfurt, Germany, April 26.

Seventeen people, including the gunman, died in the bloodbath that made Germans crowd their churches and politicians clamor for a return to religious values. But according to the Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's Catholic Theology Department, this process is already underway.

Whether the churches will ultimately benefit from this is another matter, Zulehner told United Press International as he discussed a recently completed study of what he termed the "re-spiritualization" of large urban centers.

"We are observing a boom in religious yearning and at the same time a shrinking process of the churches," he declared. "The churches have secularized themselves," Zulehner complained, meaning that they have ceased to address people's spiritual needs.

"Re-spiritualization" started in the mid-1990s, according to Zulehner, a professor of pastoral theology. "Until then it was considered modern to be an atheist. Now one is thought of as modern if one is spiritual."

Since 1995, the share of people in Brussels who called themselves "religious" rose from 48 to 59 percent. In Lisbon, that proportion went up from 51 percent to 82 percent. In Zulehner's hometown of Vienna, it moved marginally from 62 percent to 64 percent, according to a survey taken by European Value Systems.

One major exception in this development was Paris, where religious devotion dropped from 55 to 48 percent. Zulehner interpreted this as proof of the extent to which the French Revolution's ideology of secularization had taken root in that country.

Zulehner, one of the world's foremost sociologists of religion, explained that this return to religion was not the churches' doing but a cultural development. He attributed it to the city dwellers' growing despair over the banality of urban life.

It was for this reason that the "re-spiritualization" had gained momentum in metropolitan centers and not in rural areas, where religious life was still more or less intact.

While Zulehner concentrated on Austria, Belgium, France and Portugal, a prominent British politician underscored the need for well-functioning Christian congregations in cities around Europe, especially his own country.

In the light of the "societal collapse," urban areas would be incapable of solving social issues, said Sir Fred Catherwood, former vice president of the European

Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The industrial nations' social services would not be able to cope with the collapse of their societies for much longer, he told a convention of European evangelicals in Budapest. "The secular state depends on Christians."

In a telephone interview with United Press International, Zulehner stressed the churches must respond quickly to the phenomenal revival of spirituality on the Continent, where 67 percent described themselves as "religious." To define this term, researchers used composite figures for faith in God, sin, heaven, hell, and life after death. Only 5 percent identified themselves as atheists.

"A key to the churches' right response will be strong personalities, capable of dialogue," he said.

As a commendable example, he pointed -- of all places -- to Erfurt in the former East Germany, where less than a quarter of the residents are Christian, according to a spokesman of the local Catholic diocese.

In Erfurt, whose burghers have just rediscovered their churches in the aftermath of the April 26 massacre, the Rev. Reinhard Hauke, dean of the Catholic Cathedral, has instituted special services for nonbelievers.

In his magnificent sanctuary, Hauke celebrates "St. Valentine's for atheists," substitute ceremonies for confirmation and Christian marriage, and memorial services for atheists.

"The point is to trigger among nonbelievers an interest in the church without bludgeoning them," the spokesman said, "and they respond well. They are coming in droves."

Commented Zulehner: "That's the way to go."