Endangered: religious euros.(Scan)

In 1965, Ireland ordained 659 men to the Catholic priesthood. In 2005, the total will be eight. The nation that once sent missionaries around the world now has only one Catholic seminary.

And Ireland remains by far the most religious country in Europe. In western Europe as a whole, close to half of all people report they "never" or "practically never" attend church, a minority say God is a "very important" part of their lives (compared to 83 percent of Americans), and seven times as many people as in America are atheists who deny that any kind of "spirit, God, or life force" exists at all.

Worse, Europe's indifference to religion is rapidly turning into intolerance. The drafters of the proposed European constitution refused to allow any reference to Christianity in the document. Even references to the religion's historical influence on Europe were rejected.

In Borgholm, Sweden, a pastor named Ake Green was actually arrested and sentenced to a month in prison for preaching a sermon that cited sections of the Bible critical of homosexuality. He appealed, and got his case thrown out by an appeals court, ...