By Our Foreign Correspondent
Budapest, Nov 07 (IVC) , The population of Catholics in Hungary, situated in East Central Europe, has shrunk to about 30 per cent .
While all the country’s main denominations were hit badly ,results for the Ran estimated figure of Roman Catholic Church, historically the nation’s majority tradition, were worst of all- a drop of 1.1 million (nearly 30 per cent ) compared to 2011. The number of Catholics went down to an estimated figure of 2.6 million today from 3.6 million in 2011, according to the official census of religious identity released here recently.
It was really a bad news for those who concerned with the future of Christianity n central Europe.
For the first time in Hungary a majority of 56.6 per cent of Hungarians failed to declare membership of a faith tradition with 16.5 per cent declaring “no religion” status and another 40.1 per cent choosing not to answer the questionnaire at all.
Combined with a smaller loss between 2001 and 2011 , Hungary’s Catholic population has shrunk to an outstanding 50 per cent of this century , to just 27.5 per cent of the population.
These facts contrast starkly with the the rhetoric of Viktor Orban , Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister who has described “Christian Hungary” as a supposed bulwark against immigration of Muslims and other religious minorities into Europe.
