I think that “Consider all the European Catholics who are essentially atheists” should be read as “Consider all the {European Catholics who are essentially atheists}”, not “Consider {all the European Catholics}, (who are essentially atheists)”.
Like CuSithBell, I’ll plead the restrictive relative clause interpretation, bolstered by the absence of a comma. I’ll also plead common sense as an ambiguity resolution tool. And not only do we have the existence of cultural Catholics, we’ve got as our first estimate a minimum (if every God-believing French person were a Catholic) of 41% of Catholics who don’t subscribe to a vital church teaching.
Well, originally you have written “all European Catholics”. I don’t dispute the existence of cultural Catholics.
I think that “Consider all the European Catholics who are essentially atheists” should be read as “Consider all the {European Catholics who are essentially atheists}”, not “Consider {all the European Catholics}, (who are essentially atheists)”.
Like CuSithBell, I’ll plead the restrictive relative clause interpretation, bolstered by the absence of a comma. I’ll also plead common sense as an ambiguity resolution tool. And not only do we have the existence of cultural Catholics, we’ve got as our first estimate a minimum (if every God-believing French person were a Catholic) of 41% of Catholics who don’t subscribe to a vital church teaching.
I apologise for misinterpretation, then. The intended reading didn’t occur to me.