RNS
[HPI note: These Vatican statistics are relevant to Hinduism because they show the Catholic Church’s need for conversion and aggressive proselytism in India.]
VATICAN CITY, March 2, 2009: The number of Catholic priests rose slightly in 2007, but only because of dramatic growth rates in Africa and Asia, according to new statistics released by the Vatican.
“The number of priests maintains the trend of moderate growth inaugurated in 2000, after more than 20 years of rather disappointing performance,” according to the newly released 2009 edition of the Pontifical Yearbook, the church’s annually published organizational directory. With 408,024 priests at the end of 2007, their ranks had grown by 0.19 percent in one year, and 0.7 percent since 2000.
Growth was concentrated in Africa and Asia, where ordinations in 2007 rose by 27.6 percent and 21.2 percent respectively. Enrollment at seminaries in those continents also rose.
By contrast, the number of priests in Europe and Oceania fell by 6.8 percent and 5.5 percent respectively. European seminaries shrank by 2.1 percent in the same period. In the Americas, the number of priests remained “practically stationary,” but seminary enrollments fell by 1 percent.
The number of baptized Catholics as a share of world population remained unchanged at 17.3 percent, the Vatican said.