What Europe can offer the global Church

17 September 2026, The Tablet

The late Pope Francis marks a ‘Day for Africa’ by meeting African children of several nations

ALAMY/VATICAN MEDIA

Europe is no longer the political centre of the world, still less the centre of global Christianity.

The Church’s demographic and spiritual centre of gravity is shifting towards Africa, Asia and Latin America. Yet Europe can offer the global Church an experience that cannot be ignored: the experience of faith after the loss of social power, institutional privilege and its “cultural self-evidence” – the uncritical, default acceptance Christianity once had in the West.

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