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Priests, prelates and people: the history of European Catholicism – University of Reading

The Catholic Church has struggled to respond to the modern world and has often been caught on the back foot, according to historians at the University of Reading. Dr Nick Atkin and Dr Frank Tallet argue that European Catholicism over the past two centuries has remained extremely adaptable at a grass-roots level, but that a profound change of attitude at institutional level and a readjustment in the relationship between the Vatican and the rest of the Church is needed. The two historians argue their point in their book 'Priests, Prelates and People: the History of European Catholicism Since 1750' (published by I.B. Tauris, £25). They will provide an overall view of the issue at a free public lecture at the University of Reading on 16 December, 2003. ’The lecture will largely look at the past 250 years and will take in how Catholicism has responded to the modern world,’ said Dr Atkin. ’It will show that as a "lived-out faith" it has responded to and has been altered by changes in the social, cultural and political circles of which it has been a part. ’This has inevitably meant some considerable slippage in terms of its adherents, yet it has continued to manifest a vitality and resilience. This has largely been thanks to the efforts of the laity and lower clergy rather than the hierarchy and Vatican, which have been much slower to adapt to the modern world. ’Unless there is a profound change of attitude, then the diversity within unity which has always been the underlying strength of the Church – and a feature of its universality – may well give way to a Church that claims to be universal but is in truth hidebound and merely monolithic.’ End TIME OF LECTURE: 8pm, 16 December 2003. VENUE: Palmer Theatre, University of Reading Whiteknights campus For further information, please contact: Sue Rayner or Carol Derham. Tel: 0118 378 8005 E-mail: s.j.rayner@reading.ac.uk c.a.derham@reading.ac.uk