A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
WHEN staying in Switzerland a wcck or two ago I read with considerable interest an article in a Swiss paper pointing out that the Roman Catholic Church was now by far the largest and most powerful influence in Europe west of the Iron Curtain. A little reflection shows that to lie true, and if further corroboration is needed the result of the West German elections, with the triumph of the predominantly Catholic Christian Democratic Union, supplies that. Italy, of course, is almost solid Catholic, in spite of the existence of a strong Communist Party ; so are Spain and Portugal. In France out of a population of 4x millions there are about a million Protestants ; it by no means follows that the other forty million are Catholics, but it does mean that France is far more Catholic than anything else. Add the Catholic majority in Belgium and the considerable Catholic minorities in Holland and Switzerland, and the power of the Vatican in Europe will begin to be realised. It is not to be suggested that there is anything here to regret. If there is to be a unifying force in Europe it is far better that it should be Christian than anti-Christian. And though in this country we prefer that the Church should refrain from taking a hand in party politics the tradition is, for better or worse, definitely otherwise in many Continental countries. The essential fact is that the Catholic Church is implacably opposed to Communism. It is true that, with all its strength in Western Europe, it can do little today to help Catholics, like Archbishop Beran and his followers, in Communist Europe. But few people believe the Iron Curtain to be indestructible.
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