However, the reduction in the numbers of priests is placing pressure on the fewer clergy.

The number of Catholics grew 16 million to 1.33 billion in the past year according to figures released by the Vatican ahead of 2020 World Mission Sunday on October 18.

The percentage of Catholics in the world remained at 17.73%, indicating the increasing numbers are in line with world population growth.

All continents reflected growth. Africa reported the most significant increase in Catholics with 9.2 million.

Europe increased by 94,000, showing a rise for the third year running. Growth in the Americas was 4.5 million, 1.8 million in Asia, and 177,000 in Oceania.

Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies has presented the statistics annually since 1927.

The figures are taken from the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, or Statistical Yearbook of the Church published on March 25.

While the number of Catholics is on the rise worldwide, the number of priests and ordained leaders has dropped significantly. The reduction is particularly notable in Europe and America.

This is according to the report issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the body charged with distributing clergy and coordinating missions around the world.

The total number of priests in the world decreased to 414,065 in 2018, with Europe registering a drop of 2,675 priests compared to 2017.

The report also reveals a slight decrease in the number of Catholic faithful in America, Europe and Oceania, while Africa and Asia bucked the trend and continued to show signs of growth, according to the data.

The reduction in Clergy combined with the increase in Catholics is putting pressure on priests who must minister to larger numbers of people.

The figures reveal there are now 3,210 Catholics to every priest, and over 14,000 people per priest worldwide.

There has also been a significant decline in the numbers of religious women (nuns).

The number of sisters has dropped by 7429 compared to 2017.

According to an article in Religion News Service, the reasons for the steady decline of Catholic Clergy worldwide are varied. These include secularization to the Church's ongoing sexual and financial scandals.

While the number of Clergy might be declining globally, the presence of lay missionaries is on the rise. The number of lay Catholic missionaries has grown by 20,388, to a total of 376,188, primarily in America and Asia.

The theme of this year's World Mission Day was "Here am I, send me."

In his message for the global Catholic event, Pope Francis acknowledged that "understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Church's mission."

"In this context, the call to mission, the invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbor, presents itself as an opportunity for sharing, service and intercessory prayer," he added.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Religion News Service

Last Saturday the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, preached about his woes - and sufferings - as a diocesan bishop at the first profession of a religious sister.

He reportedly said that some priests "regard the money of the parish as their own, like Zuma with state funds, it is their own little piggy bank."

Here is the burgeoning question: When will we deal with the elephant in the room - the clergy?

Pope Francis has condemned ‘clericalism'. One of the big systemic problems in the Catholic Church is us, the clergy. Yet, this is not being addressed.

If anything needs urgent reform it is the current archaic formation system that is failing dismally.

Many lay people too have bought into the clerical caste and so aid and abet clericalism.

Our ecclesiology needs serious rethinking.

People often talk about how they are treated by those in (and those who support) the clerical caste.

One priest stopped children from serving at Sunday Mass because he hadn't seen them at Mass the week before.

In the sacristy he told them that they could not serve as they had missed Mass and needed to go to confession first.

He assumed they had missed Mass — is his the only parish?

He assumed they hadn't been to confession — is he the only confessor in town?

A priest refused to say a weekly Mass for a local school and forbade the school from asking another priest to celebrate Mass in ‘my territory'. He said he could only celebrate Mass once a month at the school.

Another newly minted priest, starting out in a parish, stopped a religious woman who has been in religious life for over 50 years, from doing a communion service for the sick and infirm (as she had done for many years). Continue reading