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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5310 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Tue May 27th, 2008 04:54 pm |
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Vatican City, May 27, 2008 / 10:30 am (CNA).- The latest statistics for the Catholic Church have been released by the Vatican for the years 2000-2006. The results show that the overall population has remained stable but that Europe’s population has continued to decline while African and Asia have maintained strong growth.
The Statistical Yearbook of the Church, says that over the seven year period, the Catholic presence in the world has remained stable at around 17.3 percent of the total population.
The number of Catholics in Europe has only shown a one percent increase, despite the fact that 25 percent of all Catholics live there.
All other areas of the world showed a more substantial increase. In the Americas and in Oceania the number of Catholics grew by 8.4 percent and 7.6 percent respectively; in Asia they remained more or less stable with respect to population growth, whereas in Africa they increased from 130 million in 2000 to 158.3 million in 2006.
The ranks of the clergy also saw an upswing with the number of bishops in the world rising from 4,541 in 2000 to 4,898 in 2006, an increase of 7.86 percent.
The number of priests also increased slightly over this seven-year period by about 2,000, that is from 405,178 in 2000 to 407,262 in 2006, an overall rise of around 0.51 percent.
In keeping with the trend in Catholic population growth, the global south (Africa and Asia) saw priestly vocations increase by 23.24 percent and 17.71 percent respectively. The Americas maintained their number of priests, while Europe and Oceania witnessed a decline in their priestly ranks of 5.75 percent 4.37 percent correspondingly.
The number of diocesan priests increased by two percent, going from 265,781 in 2000 to 271,091 in 2006. By contrast, the number of religious order priests showed a constant decline, down by 2.31 percent to 136,000 in 2006.
Europe was the only continent to take a hit in the number of religious order priests: in 2000 they represented 51 percent of the world total, in 2006 just 48 percent. On the other hand, Asia and Africa together represented 17.5 percent of the world total in 2000 and 21 percent in 2006. The Americas remained steady at around 30 percent, and Oceania a little more than one percent.
Non-ordained religious numbered 55.057 in the year 2000 and 55,107 in 2006. Comparing this data by continent, Europe showed a strong decline (down by 12.01 percent), as did Oceania (16.83 percent), the Americas remained stable, while Asia and Africa increased (respectively, by 30.63 percent and 8.13 percent).
Female religious are almost double the number of priests, and 14 times that of non-ordained male religious, but their numbers are falling, from 800,000 in 2000 to 750,000 in 2006. As for their geographical distribution, 42 percent reside in Europe, 28.03 percent in America and 20 percent in Asia. The number of female religious has increased in the most dynamic continents: Africa (up by 15.45 percent) and Asia (up by 12.78 percent).
A final bright spot that the statistical yearbook noted was an upswing in the number of seminarians in diocesan and religious seminaries. Globally, their numbers increased from 110.583 in 2000 to more than 115.000 in 2006, a growth of 4.43 percent. In Africa and Asia their numbers went up whereas Europe saw a reduction of around 16 percent.
The above articpe is reposted with permission from the Vatican News Service.
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Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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Dave Armstrong
Network Apologist
| Joined: | Fri Nov 2nd, 2007 |
| Location: | Melvindale, Michigan USA |
| Posts: | 1658 |
| First Name: | Dave | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Evangelical (1977): Diverse Protestant Influences / Catholic in 1990 |
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Posted: Tue May 27th, 2008 05:15 pm |
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| Amen! Now if we retrograde Americans could learn from our far more enlightened Asian and African brothers and sisters, we'd be in great shape. If they keep sending missionaries to us, maybe we'll get up to speed in 20-25 years. Some folks are slow . . .
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I'm happy to offer whatever theological & personal assistance I can. My blog, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, contains 2000+ papers & web pages (absolutely free) & 16 apologetic books (for sale):
http://www.biblicalcatholic.com/
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left coast mystic
Member
| Joined: | Sat May 10th, 2008 |
| Location: | La Honda, California USA |
| Posts: | 128 |
| First Name: | Marcee | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | nondenominational charismatic, Presbyterian, long-time lover of the RCC |
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Posted: Wed May 28th, 2008 01:06 am |
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Rick -
Thanks for posting this. I've been wondering how the Church is doing globally.
I doubt there are any hard statistics, but I wonder if anyone has a sense of the trend in protestant conversions to Catholicism in the US in recent years. I remember hearing a prophecy sometime in the mid-90s - maybe during one of those ecumenical charismatic mega-events that used to happen every few years - that in coming years there would be a great movement toward the Catholic church.
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Godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Tim. 6:6)
In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. (Isa. 30:15)
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Dave Armstrong
Network Apologist
| Joined: | Fri Nov 2nd, 2007 |
| Location: | Melvindale, Michigan USA |
| Posts: | 1658 |
| First Name: | Dave | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Evangelical (1977): Diverse Protestant Influences / Catholic in 1990 |
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Posted: Thu May 29th, 2008 04:37 pm |
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I don't have any exact figures on hand, but it sure seems like conversions (and "reversions") are on the upswing. Of course, being involved in apologetics and CHNI, I would tend to see a lot of that, so I can't really give objective statistics or claim to be any kind of detached observer.
It would appear to be vastly different from, say, 20 years ago, when I was still two years away from becoming a Catholic. I didn't hear a word about Catholic apologetics then, except for Chesterton, who had been dead for 50 years (and maybe Peter Kreeft): and I was a Protestant apologist myself. Now, Catholic apologetics is all over the place, suggesting that there is at least a mini-revival going on.
Our Protestant friends are certainly highly concerned (at times, literally alarmed) about Catholic conversions, and that is surely one indication of a trend in our favor, generally speaking.
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I'm happy to offer whatever theological & personal assistance I can. My blog, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, contains 2000+ papers & web pages (absolutely free) & 16 apologetic books (for sale):
http://www.biblicalcatholic.com/
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Steven Barrett
Member
| Joined: | Tue Nov 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | Hadley, Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 894 |
| First Name: | Steven | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic, Episcopal communicant, Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Thu May 29th, 2008 05:24 pm |
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 I'd love to share these comments with some Gordon-Conwell people I know at my (family's) baptist church. But then they'd be VERY worried that I'd gone beyond the pale into active subversion.
If only they knew how little it takes sometimes to "undermine" what's already crumbling and ready to topple, no matter how many ways they try to repackage their message with all sorts of contemporary approaches.
SIGH! One of these days they'll catch on that cars don't roll on square tires! But I guess it'll take them another five centuries to figure this out.
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For anybody interested in reading commentary from a Catholic's socially conservative/fiscally liberal viewpoint, go to my new blog at http://www.politicsramble.com/ .
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