While the decline of Christianity across the Western world, and especially in Europe, is well-documented, this does not give an entirely accurate picture of what is really going on. While Catholic church attendance is in sharp decline across western Europe, especially France, Germany and Spain, it is rising in the east. Meanwhile, the collapse of Catholicism in parts of the United States masks a rise in other areas of the country. For starters, Catholicism is a driving force in the conservative nationalist countries of central and eastern Europe, such as Hungary and Poland, where Catholicism is heavily associated with post-communist freedom and democracy, rather than associated with traditionalism and alleged “patriarchy”, as in western Europe.