Pope Benedict XVI receives
2012 Catholic yearbooks:
Catholic population grew by
150 million to 1.196 billion
from 2009 to 2010
March 10, 2012
Presentation of the yearbooks last year (2/22/11).
Pope Benedict XVI was presented today with the 2012 edition of the
Annuario Pontificio and the
Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, yearbooks which compile annual developments in the Catholic Church.
The presentation was made by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and his deputy for General Affairs, Mons. Giovanni Angelo Becciu.
They were accompanied by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, director of the Central Office of Church Statistics, along with Professor Enrico Nenna and other collaborators.
The editions give a snapshot of the Church in 2011, citing statistics from 2010. For example, in the last year, the Pope erected eight Episcopal Sees, one Personal Ordinariate, and one Military Ordinariate.
It shows just under 1.196 billion Catholics in the world, compared to 1.181 billion in 2009. The Catholic proportion of the world population has stayed fairly stable, at 17.5%.
From 2009 to 2010, the number of bishops in the world increased from 5,065 to 5,104.
The growth trend in the number of priests, which began in 2000, continued in 2010. There are now 412,236 priests (277,009 diocesan, 135,227 religious), an increase of 1,643.
The number of permanent deacons increased from 38,155 to 39,564, with over 97% of them in North America and Europe.
Globally, the number of professed religious from 2009 to 2010 rose from 729,371 to 721,935.
The number of students of philosophy and theology in diocesan and religious seminaries has steadily increased (4%) over the last five years. There were 114,439 seminarians in 2005 and 118,990 in 2010.
Other key statistics are given in the Vatican bulletin today, but they have to be translated.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/03/2012 18:18]