{"id":1947,"date":"2007-10-09T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-09T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/10\/there-we-grow-again.html"},"modified":"2007-10-09T16:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-09T16:14:00","slug":"there-we-grow-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/10\/there-we-grow-again.html","title":{"rendered":"There we grow again…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The Church is continuing to expand — and not necessarily in Europe or the United States. <\/p>\n

Some highlights of a new report<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The world’s Catholic population is growing fastest in Africa and Asia, according to an annual compilation of statistics provided by the Fides news agency. <\/p>\n

The world’s Catholic population grew 16.6 million in the most recent year, Fides reports. The figures show a rise of 4.65 million in the number of Catholics in Africa, 3.08 million in Asia, and 6.83 million in the Americas– which are treated as a single continent by Vatican statisticians. <\/p>\n

Fides, an arm of the Congregation for Evangelization, offers a summary of figures each year, providing a picture of Church activity particularly in mission fields, for World Mission Sunday. The latest report reflects statistics compiled at the end of the 2005 calendar year: the most recent statistics available on a worldwide basis. <\/p>\n

The number of priests worldwide increased only slight: by 520, to reach a total of 406,411. But that growth was uneven; Africa and Asia saw a substantial increase in the number of priests (nearly 3,000 combined), while Europe lost 1,699 priests and the Americas lost 639. As a result, the number of Catholics per priest rose substantially in Europe, Oceania, and the Americas, while dropping in Africa and Asia. <\/p>\n

Similarly, the number of seminarians preparing for the priesthood rose in Africa and Asia, by a combined total of over 1,500, but dropped significantly in Europe (443) and slightly (7) in Oceania. In the Americas the seminary population rose by 210, mostly in Latin American countries. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Photo: African women presenting gifts during mass at the Vatican<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Church is continuing to expand — and not necessarily in Europe or the United States. Some highlights of a new report: The world’s Catholic population is growing fastest in Africa and Asia, according to an annual compilation of statistics provided by the Fides news agency. 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