The Church in England and Wales: An Historical Overview

Abstract

Abstract Over the course of the past century, Catholics in England and Wales went from being a marginalized minority, with a strong subcultural identity as Catholics, to a largely unexceptional and accepted part of the mainstream: ‘like everyone else’, in the famous words of British Catholic anthropologist Mary Douglas. This simplistic narrative, while true enough in its broadest contours, nevertheless obscures a great deal. This chapter presents a more nuanced and detailed overview of the various complex and contested factors contributing to the transformation of English and Welsh Catholicism since 1914. It is intended as a complement to the deeper treatment of key topics and themes offered elsewhere in this volume, while offering a sociologically informed overview of Catholicism’s changing place within wider English and Welsh culture and society.

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