Catholic Church in the United Kingdom

At that time, Catholic emancipation was gathering support but was not yet a reality, particularly in Ireland, where the Protestant Ascendancy was still in full force.

[1] Restrictions on the civil rights of Catholics only began to change with the passing of the Papists Act 1778, which allowed them to own property, inherit land and join the British Army, although even this measure resulted in the backlash of the Gordon Riots of 1780, showing the depth of continuing anti-Catholic feeling.

These views are reflected in the papal encyclical Rerum novarum issued by Pope Leo XIII, which became the foundation of modern Catholic social justice teaching.

Catholic parochial schools, subsidised by the government, were set up in urban areas to serve the largely Irish element.

[4] He gained acclaim for building a new cathedral in Westminster and for encouraging the growth of religious congregations largely filled by the Irish.

A number of prominent individuals have converted to the Catholic Church, including St Edmund Campion, St Margaret Clitherow, King Charles II, King James II and VII, St John Henry Cardinal Newman, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, Augustus Pugin, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Siegfried Sassoon, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Graham Greene, Malcolm Muggeridge, Kenneth Clark, and Joseph Pearce.

[citation needed] In 2011, in total there were roughly 5.7 million Catholics (9.1%) in the United Kingdom: 4,155,100 in England and Wales (7.4%),[9] 841,053 in Scotland (15.9%),[10][11] and 738,033 in Northern Ireland (40.76%).

Other council areas in which Catholics outnumber members of the Church of Scotland are North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, and West Dunbartonshire, according to the 2011 Scottish Census.