| Submit your comments on this article |
| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Catholic Numbers on Rise in Africa and Asia |
| 2013-05-14 |
| [An Nahar] The number of Catholic priests and believers in the world is on the rise, a Vatican report showed on Monday, with gains in Africa and Asia offsetting a slump in Europe and the Americas. The world's Catholics rose from 1.196 billion to 1.214 billion between 2010 and 2011, an increase of 1.5 percent, according to the Church's annual statistics report. The gain outstripped the increase in the global population, which rose by 1.23 percent over the same period, the report said. The biggest rise among believers was seen in Africa (up 4.3 percent) and Asia (up 2.0 percent), while America while numbers in Europe were broadly flat, up 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog backed into the corner and showed its teeth. And what big teeth they were!... the total number of Catholic priests globally grew from 405,067 in 2001 to 413,418 at the end of 2011. Again this rise was driven by Africa -- where the number jumped 39.5 percent -- and Asia, up 32 percent. Over the same period, Europe saw a 9.0 percent drop in priest numbers. The number of baptized Catholics in the world was stable, at around 17.5 percent of the total population. The majority of Catholics live in the Americas (48.8 percent), followed by Europe (23.5 percent), Africa (16 percent), Asia (10.9 percent) and Oceania (0.8 percent). |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 On my travels around the US, I keep meeting priests from Africa currently serving as pastors or associate pastors in parishes I visit on Sundays. We used to send them missionaries, now the reverse is happening. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-05-14 18:49 |
| #1 China is still projected by various Perts to ecome the world's largest Catholic or Christian country by 2050, Global Jihad notwithstanding. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-05-14 01:43 |