The Vatican has just released the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae for 2016 and the Pontifical Yearbook 2018. The number of the world’s Catholics has grown to as many as 1.4 billion. Nearly half of the world’s Catholics are in the Americas, and the greatest increases have come in Africa and Asia. And there are more bishops since the last count . . . but fewer priests.
New data on the worldwide Church
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