Pope Benedict XVI endured protests and warned of "aggressive secularism" on his September visit to the United Kingdom. But a survey released shortly before his arrival suggests Britain's long-term slide away from church has bottomed out.
The British number-crunching group Christian Research declared an end to a decades-old attendance decline in the Church of England and the Catholic Church, and a slight uptick among Baptists.
This was surprising news to those who figured Christianity was still dying in Britain, where only about 7 percent of people regularly attend worship, and where atheist groups bought billboards to tell the passing pope, "Two million Scots are good without God."
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