(CP) While the variety of Catholics worldwide barely increased from 2021 to 2022, latest statistics show that the variety of priests continues to say no.
The Vatican released the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church earlier this month. Edited by the Vatican Secretariat of State’s Central Statistical Office, the publications are being distributed in bookstores and published by the Vatican Printing Press.
The publications highlight “statistical data to evaluate the important trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide,” reports Vatican News.
The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook shows the variety of baptized Catholics on the planet increased from 1.376 billion in 2021 to 1.39 billion in 2022, which amounted to a rise of 1.0%.
Africa saw the very best rate of increase within the variety of Catholics (3%), followed by the Americas (0.9%) and Asia (0.6%). The variety of Catholics in Europe remained relatively stable at 286 million, while Oceania “reported stability” as well.
The variety of priests worldwide registered a really small decrease between 2021 and 2022. While there have been 407,872 priests in 2021, that number dropped to 407,730 a 12 months later.
Even because the variety of priests declined worldwide, increases were reported in Africa (3.2%) and Asia (1.6%). On the opposite hand, the variety of priests decreased by 1.7% in Europe and 1.5% in Oceania. The variety of priests within the Americas remained “almost stationary.”
As the variety of priests declined, everlasting deacons increased from 2021 to 2022. While deacons can tackle some administrative roles inside a church and provides homilies, they can not preside over mass.
Worldwide, deacons increased by 2% from 49,176 in 2021 to 50,150 in 2022. In Africa, Asia and Oceania, the number rose by 1.1% from 2021 to 2022, reaching a complete of 1,380 in 2022. In the Americas and Europe, everlasting deacons saw respective increases of two.1% and 1.7%.
The Vatican’s statistics also examined the variety of non-priest professed religious men. In 2022, 49,414 religious men held such positions, a decrease from the 49,774 recorded in 2021.
“The decline was attributable, so as of importance, to the European, African, and Oceanian continents,” the Vatican News report stated. “In Asia, then again, religious men increased considerably, and to a lesser extent within the Americas.”
The number of spiritual women within the Catholic Church dropped by 1.6% from 608,958 in 2021 to 599,228 in 2022. While religious women increased by 1.7% in Africa and 0.1% in Southeast Asia, the variety of professed religious sisters dropped in South and Central America (2.5%), North America (3%), Europe (3.5%) and Oceania (3.6%).
Looking to the longer term, the variety of seminarians studying to turn into priests declined by 1.3% from 2021 through 2022. Although seminarians increased by 2.1% in Africa and 1.3% in Oceania, the opposite regions on the planet saw a decrease within the variety of men in search of to affix the priesthood. A drop in vocations was recorded in Europe (6%), the Americas (3.2%) and Asia (1.2%).
