"The Church is alive and will always be, albeit under different circumstances. We must accept the decline of Europe. We tend to gaze at our ecclesiastical navel, but it is an undeniable continental movement" Schönborn said.

Speaking to Famille Chrétienne, a French Catholic magazine, Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, highlighted the growing secularisation and rise of Islam in Europe.

The Cardinal stated that Europe's population is changing due to declining birth rates and increasing immigration.

"In 20 years, the European population will not be the same as it is today, and it is already not the same as it was 50 years ago.

"This is inevitable, above all due to the decline in the birth rate in Europe but also due to immigration and the increasing presence of Islam" Cardinal Schönborn stated.

Fraternal rapprochement

However Schönborn pointed out that, despite these shifts, Catholics should trust in the Church's enduring role.

He referenced the 12,000 baptisms in France this year as a sign of hope and grace at work.

The cardinal called the idea that France and Europe are "no longer Christian" because of Islam's influence "absurd".

"If Catholics have left the Church, we should not be surprised that they are in the minority" he suggested.

He then called for Catholics to return to the Church and encouraged a "fraternal rapprochement" with Islam, echoing Pope Francis' views.

"Both our religions have an absolute appeal.

"For Muslims, God has demanded that the whole world be subjected to him and the Koran.

"As for Christ, he has entrusted us with a universal mission: ‘Make disciples of all nations.'

"Neither of them can therefore renounce their mission. But the Christians' way of acting is not that of the Koran but the following of Christ in all dimensions of our lives" Schönborn said.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

The growth and regional migration of Muslims, combined with the ongoing impact of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other extremist groups that commit acts of violence in the name of Islam, have brought Muslims and the Islamic faith to the forefront of the political debate in many countries.

Yet many facts about Muslims are not well known in some of these places, and most Americans - who live in a country with a relatively small Muslim population - say they know little or nothing about Islam.

Here are answers to some key questions about Muslims, compiled from several Pew Research Center reports published in recent years:

How many Muslims are there? Where do they live?

There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 - roughly 23% of the global population - according to a Pew Research Center estimate. But while Islam is currently the world's second-largest religion (after Christianity), it is the fastest-growing major religion.

Indeed, if current demographic trends continue, the number of Muslims is expected to exceed the number of Christians by the end of this century.

Although many countries in the Middle East-North Africa region, where the religion originated in the seventh century, are heavily Muslim, the region is home to only about 20% of the world's Muslims.

A majority of the Muslims globally (62%) live in the Asia-Pacific region, including large populations in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey.

Indonesia is currently the country with the world's single largest Muslim population, but Pew Research Center projects that India will have that distinction by the year 2050 (while remaining a majority Hindu country), with more than 300 million Muslims.

The Muslim population in Europe also is growing; we project 10% of all Europeans will be Muslims by 2050. Continue reading

Sources

• Pew Research Center, from an article written by Michael Lipka, an editor focusing on religion at Pew Research Center.
• Image: Wikipedia