An important figure in the Catholic church has warned that everyone in Italy will 'soon be Muslim' due to the country's 'stupidity'.

Italian Archbishop, Monsignor Carlo Liberati, said that the growing number of Muslim migrants in Europe and increasing secularism will lead to Islam becoming the continent's foremost religion.

The Bishop Emeritus of Pompeii said: 'In 10 years we will all be Muslims because of our stupidity. Italy and Europe live in a pagan and atheist way, they make laws that go against God and they have traditions that are proper of paganism.

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Muslims hold Friday prayers in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy October 21, 2016

Italian Archbishop Monsignor Carlo Liberati talks at a seminar. He claims Muslim immigration and secularism will see Italy become a non-Christian country

'All of this moral and religious decadence favours Islam.'

He added: 'We have a weak Christian faith. The Church nowadays does not work well and seminaries are empty.

'Parishes are the only thing still standing. We need a true Christian life. All this paves the way to Islam. In addition to this, they have children and we do not. We are in full decline.'

Italy has become a prime destination for Muslim migrants with some 330,000 people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia arriving by sea over the past two years.

Many are fleeing war and cross the Mediterranean sea from North Africa via a dangerous boat ride.

The number of Muslims residing in Italy has skyrocketed from 2,000, during the 1970s, to over two million at the end of 2015, according to official Italian statistics.

Figures also show the country has 5,014,437 foreign nationals residents as of January 1, 2015, an increase of 92,352 on the previous year.

And Liberati claims the increasing number of new arrivals, including Eastern Europeans and Romanians migrating to the country since the expansion of the European Union, have impinged on the quality of life for native Italians.

He said: 'We help without delay those coming from outside and we forget many poor and old Italians who are eating from the trash. We need policies that take care of Italians first: our young people and the unemployed.

'I am a protester. If I were not a priest, I'd be out there demonstrating in the squares. What is the point of so many migrants that instead of thanking for the food we give them, they just throw it, spend hours with their cell phones and even organise riots?'

The Arch bishop even chided the fact the Catholic church donates money to the recent migrants.

Muslim men share an embrace in Rome, the capital of Italy during a protest against the closure of unlicensed mosques last year

A general view of a St Peter's Square in the Vatican. Liberati says Catholicism won't be the foremost religion in Italy in ten years time

He said: 'Giving money to migrants wandering around town is not only wrong, but morally harmful because we encourage their behaviour and they get used to that, not mentioning the fact that we already feed them.

'I think sometimes this creates a beggars' network. I remember that my father went to work very hard as a migrant in Australia so I could go to the seminar. So he has experienced in his own skin the discomfort of poverty and the noble virtue of gratitude.'