Number of Catholics increases

Oh yeah, anti-Catholics would be quick to say:  "That is why they do not want contraception, abortion!"

Pfft!  Yeah, right.


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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The number of Catholics in the world and the number of deacons, priests and bishops all increased in 2010, while the number of women in religious orders continued to decline, according to Vatican statistics.  [Women power!!!  Uh..........what now?]

At the end of 2010, the worldwide Catholic population reached 1.196 billion, an increase of 15 million or 1.3 percent, slightly outpacing the global population growth rate, which was estimated at 1.1 percent, said a statement published March 10 by the Vatican press office.

Catholics as a percentage of the global population "remained stable at around 17.5 percent," it said.

The statement reported a handful of the statistics contained in the 2012 "Annuario Pontificio," a yearbook containing information about every Vatican office, as well as every diocese and religious order in the world.

Officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State and its Central Office of Church Statistics presented the first copy of the 2012 yearbook to Pope Benedict XVI during an audience March 10.

Detailed statistics in the yearbook are based on reports from dioceses and religious orders as of Dec. 31, 2010.

The percentage of Catholics declined slightly in South America from 28.54 percent to 28.34 percent of the regional population, and dropped considerably in Europe from 24.05 percent to 23.83 percent. The percentage of Catholics increased in 2010 by just under half a percentage point in Southeast Asia and Africa.  [Take a look here folks!  Africa has contraception and abortion.  Southeast Asia, except for the Philippines, has abortion.  So this pretty much debunks the idiotic argument of the pro-RH zealots that the Catholic Church does not want RH because it wants more members.  Duh!]


The Vatican said the number of bishops in the world increased from 5,065 to 5,104; the number of priests went from 410,593 to 412,236, increasing everywhere except Europe.  [Oh Christian Europe!  What is happening to you?!]

The number of permanent deacons reported -- 39,564 -- was an increase of more than 1,400 over the previous year. 97.5 percent of the world's permanent deacons live in the Americas or in Europe.   [Is the permanent helping in the decline of priestly vocations?  Uhm....]

The number of men joining a religious order showed "a setback," the Vatican said, with an increase of only 436 male religious worldwide in 2010.  [I guess this means religious brothers, those who are not ordained.  So there are fewer of the Marist and La Salle brothers?]


The number of women in religious orders fell by more than 7,000 in 2010, despite showing a 2 percent increase in both Asia and Africa. [Hmmm...  Feminism?  Or traditional orders?  What do you think?] At the end of the year, Catholic women's orders had 721,935 members.

The number of seminarians around the world showed continued growth, from 117,978 at the end of 2009 to 118,990 at the end of 2010.  [Hope they all get ordained!]

In the last five years, it said, the number of seminarians rose more than 14 percent in Africa, 13 percent in Asia and 12.3 percent in Oceania. Numbers decreased in other regions of the world, particularly Europe, which saw a 10.4 percent drop in the number of seminarians between 2005 and 2010.


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All in all a nice picture, aint it?

But the situation about religious sisters is not good.

But....I read once that the number of religious sisters who are more traditional is increasing!

Good!  Biological solution for radical feminist orders?

And as a conclusion...

Imagine how the Manalos are drolling at our numbers!