PAUL MILLER: Sunday mass at the Church of Notre Dame in the Auteuil district
of Paris -- there are only about 70 worshippers. Fewer than 10 percent of French
Catholics go to church regularly.It's a similar story in England, where many churches such as these along the Canterbury pilgrims route now hold services only once or twice a month. Only 7 percent of Church of England members attend church that often.
In England, the population shifted out of the countryside in the 19th century and out of the inner cities in the 20th, leaving too many churches in the wrong places. Also, sociologists say, after 50 years of declining church attendance, there are too many people growing up with no tradition of church-going in their families.
CANON
ROBIN GILL (Kent University Theology Department): What we are seeing at the
moment is that the biggest decline is among young people. These people are not
even starting on the first rung now. We are actually looking at less of a percentage
of children going to church than adults. That's quite seriously worrying. MILLER: In France, which officially is overwhelmingly Catholic, there is a history of anti-clericalism, and a perception that the Church is authoritarian and out of touch.
Father Philippe Bedin is a parish priest in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris.
He teaches catechism to what he admits is a small percentage of children who live in the parish. He hopes these children will be regular churchgoers but he knows many of their parents are not.
FATHER
PHILIPPE BEDIN (Parish Priest): The children of this age, the young age, are
responding very well but they are not supported by their families -- most of the
parents are not really practicing. They look at the church as rigid in its moral
teaching and all that and they have difficulty with that. MILLER: While attendance in England and France is low by American standards, in some other European countries it is even lower -- the estimate for the Lutheran Church in Sweden, which until recently was the state religion, is one and a half percent.
The decline in churchgoing in Europe, at a time when Christianity is expanding rapidly in other parts of the world, strikes some as particularly significant -- since Europe is the original home of so many Christian denominations.
But Europe is also the home of secularism, where people put their trust in reason, science, and the power of the individual rather than religion. Sociologists say that led to a diminished role for religious institutions.
Government took over many church functions, although the Church of England still provides social services in poorer neighborhoods such as the Southwark district of London.
In France, the subsidized medical system and an extensive social safety net were created, with services from birth to death.
The revolution in 1789 broke the vast power of the Catholic Church. It created separation of church and state for the opposite reason than in the United States -- to protect the state from the church.
PROFESSOR
DANIELLE HERVIEU-LEGER (Sociologist): The religious institutions are on the
margins of the culture for a while. It's not a new situation. And probably, it
makes the religious institutions in France more fragile.One religious institution in France that is thriving is the non-denominational American Church in Paris. It offers the kinds of community and social programs Americans expect from a church.
PASTOR
KALAJAINAN: I would say more overtly religious, again, partly because of the
cultural differences in the comfort level with which people express their own
beliefs. What's happening here now is people are expressing their spiritual needs
much more on an individual level. 
She
goes with children with special needs and says pilgrimage is as much a lifestyle
experience as a religious one.
MILLER:
The Anglican Church has had some success with what is known as the Alpha course
of evangelical outreach. It offers an introduction to Christianity presented in
sessions of meals, talks, and small group discussions. It started here at Holy
Trinity Brompton Church in London and has spread rapidly to 7,000 churches in
Britain and 16,000 worldwide. 
