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PDF versionVatican stats show increase in priests, laity
Feb. 22, 2010
VATICAN CITY -- The latest Vatican statistics show a slight increase in Catholics as a percentage of the world's population, and a slow but steady rise in the number of priests and seminarians worldwide.
The statistics, from the end of 2008, were presented along with the new Vatican yearbook Feb. 20.
The Vatican said the number of Catholics reached 1.166 billion, an increase of 19 million, or 1.7 percent, from the end of 2007. During the same period, Catholics as a percentage of the global population grew from 17.33 percent to 17.4 percent, it said.
The number of priests stood at 409,166, an increase of 1,142 from the end of 2007. Since the year 2000, the Vatican said, the number of priests has increased by nearly 4,000, or about 1 percent.
Looking at the way priests are distributed around the world, it said: 47.1 percent were in Europe, 30 percent in the Americas, 13.2 percent in Asia, 8.7 percent in Africa and 1.2 percent in Oceania.
The number of seminarians around the world rose from 115,919 at the end of 2007 to 117,024 at the end of 2008, an increase of more than 1 percent, it said.
The increase in seminarians varied geographically: Africa showed an increase of 3.6 percent, Asia an increase of 4.4 percent, and Oceania an increase of 6.5 percent, while Europe had a decrease of 4.3 percent and the Americas remained about the same.
The statistics showed that professed religious women remain the single largest category of pastoral workers, but that overall their numbers continue to decline. From 2000 to the end of 2008, the Vatican said, the number of women religious went from 801,185 to 739,067, a drop of 7.8 percent.
Regarding geographic distribution, it said the largest numbers of women religious are still found in Europe (40.9 percent of the total) and the Americas (27.5 percent of the total); both areas have shown a significant decline in numbers since 2000, however. During the same period, the number of women religious in Africa has increased by 21.2 percent, and in Asia by 16.4 percent, it said.
COMPARE/CONTRAST these two
COMPARE/CONTRAST these two citations:
1) "During the same period, the number of women religious in Africa has increased by 21.2 percent, and in Asia by 16.4 percent, it said."
2) "Faced with an aging membership and fewer vocations, many religious orders have turned to "foreign vocations" in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal [Rode] said. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.
"It is easy, in situations of crisis, to turn to deceptive and damaging shortcuts, or attempt to lower the criteria and parameters for admission to consecrated life and the course of initial and permanent formation," he [Rode] said.
http://ncronline.org/news/women/rod%C3%A9-religious-orders-are-modern-cr...
Memo to Joseph Ratzinger:
So WHICH one is the ROMAN Catholic Church's OFFICIAL position on female religious vocations?
A few more numbers from this
A few more numbers from this side of the planet:
http://www.ucanews.com/?p=66015
Third World countries that
Third World countries that are showing increases in Catholic numbers can't sustain those numbers. As these countries suffer more hunger and poverty, they will expect the Catholic Church to be the remedy for their problems and they will soon find out that the current church structures are merely a house of cards that are about to fall. The need for ritual and symbolism may attract many new converts but this too soon passes. Finally, as certain sections of third world populations become more educated they will begin to question the imperial model that Rome presently pushes as the true model of Church, and with their questions, there will be doubts and then finally rejection of this model because it doesn't remotely follow Christ's examples of the way to be His disciple. Vatican II was the opening of the doors to a Second Reformation of the Church, along with a long overdue renewal. This has been subverted by two right wing reactionary men, John Paul II and Joe (Benedict) Ratzinger. The Holy Spirit is allowing this model of Church to continue its' rapid decay and implosion. A new foundation will be built by the next generation of Catholics and it will be the Church that the great Second Vatican Council envisioned. It will not be an imperial and triumphalist model as is the current one, which is rotting from its' own greed, power grabs and corruption. The reformed and renewed Catholic Church will reflect the teachings of Jesus, not of men who choose to live as kings and princes while there is massive hunger, homelessness on a grand scale and destruction of the natural planet Earth. I have great hope for the Future Church and The People of God.
Have you ever traveled in the
Have you ever traveled in the developing world? Ever visited a religous order in one of these countries, visited a Catholic Relif Services site, or other mission site? The Church is HEAVILY involved in alleviating human misery in the developing world. Also, many people inn the Catholic developing world are educated(i.e. Philippines)and are not exactly clamoring for a "liberal" Church. Quite frankly, to assume that people from other cultures want your vision of the Church(after they have been educated and freed of their supposed ignorance) is racist.
and a "liberal Church" is?
and a "liberal Church" is?
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