Archbishop of Sydney

the Church in the World

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
13 November 2005

At the end of last month the latest edition of the Catholic Church’s statistical year book was published with figures as at the end of 2003. 

The year book makes interesting reading and highlights developments that might surprise some in Australia, where it is often very easy to assume that Christianity is on a slow boat into the sunset.

Over the course of 2003 the total number of Catholics in the world grew by 15 million.  To put this twelve-month increase in perspective, the population of Australia is currently a bit more than 20 million.

There are now almost 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, making up over 17 per cent of the world’s population.  Africa, America, Asia and Oceania all reported increases in Catholic numbers.  Only Europe reported a decrease.

The Synod of Bishops which I attended in Rome last month was called on by some in Australia to allow married men to be ordained priests. The shortage of priests locally causes real hardship, especially for Catholics in rural and remote areas.  But it would be a mistake to assume that this reflects a global trend.

The number of priests in the world increased slightly in 2003 to about 405,000.  Africa and Asia reported over 1,000 new priests each for 2003, although Europe posted a loss of almost 1,900. 

Population growth exceeds the growth in the priest population, so the ratios of priests to people increased in 2003.  There is 1 priest for every 12,264 people in the world, and 1 for every 2,677 Catholics.  This last figure in particular helps put Australian claims about the shortage of priests into perspective.

The renewal of the current body of priests is also not in doubt, despite a decrease of 826 in the number of seminarians around the world.  Seminarian numbers total a little over 112,000, which is more than 1 to every 4 priests.

The religious orders continue to be under pressure, with the number of nuns down by almost 6,700.  The most dramatic decrease was in Europe, which lost 9,397 nuns in 2003.  Numbers also fell, less dramatically in the Americas and Oceania, although in Asia and Africa there was strong growth (3,445 and 2,429 respectively). 

But despite the falls in some places, the number of nuns in the world is still in excess of 776,000. 

Lay missionaries increased by 28,586 to over 172,000, and catechists increased by over 80,000 to 2.84 million.  The dramatic increase in the number of lay people proclaiming the gospel and teaching the faith is one of the striking signs of new growth in the church in recent years.

The figures show that despite some serious challenges, especially in Europe, Catholicism will continue to be one of the main forces for good in the twenty-first century.  The fate of the main secular alternatives is not so clear.