This book gives a picture of the most important data concerning the Catholic Church, enabling one to assess from varied viewpoints the changing characteristics of pastoral activity from 1978 to 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Among other things, the analysis will shed light on the profound territorial differences in the composition per continent that have occurred during the Pontificate of John Paul II.

2. The number of baptized faithful across the world has grown gradually from 757 million in 1978 to 1,045 million in 2000, with an increase of about 38%. Since this increase is lower than the increase in the world population, the relative number of baptized Catholics has diminished, if only slightly: from 18.0 Catholics per 100 inhabitants in 1978, to 17.3 in 2000 (Table 1).

However, if the world trend over the past 22 years has not substantially changed, the situation on the different continents has. In some, the relative increases between 1978 and 2000 are conspicuous, whilst in others it is more contained. Africa shows the greatest increase (137.4%); Asia (especially in the Middle East) comes next with (69.4%); at the other end of the scale, Europe shows the smallest increase of (5.8%).

Of particular interest to us is the interpretation of the data, continent by continent, on the relative number of Catholics in relation to the population: a quotient that provides the number of faithful per 100 inhabitants. These figures show how baptized Catholics differ radically in the various geographical areas as follows: Catholics number 62.8% of the population of America, 40% in Europe and 2.9% in Asia. It is important to stress that variations within the American area itself are greater: if, in North America the percentage of Catholics is only 24.6%, in central and continental America it is (90.1%) and in South America (86.6%) the number of Catholics is far higher. A diachronic interpretation of the quotients enables us to pick out the different trends in the various geographical areas from 1978 and which vary only slightly. However, if the number of Catholics throughout the world is dwindling slightly in every area—with the exception of Europe—the overall trend shows slow growth.

3. In the 22 years from 1978 to 2000 the number of bishops has increased from 3,714 to 4,541, with a relative growth that reaches 22% (Table 2). However, the increases are very different from the geographical viewpoint. If we calculate the average linear increase, we notice the different consistency of the phenomenon in the various parts of the globe: in decreasing order it goes from the maximum value of 1.78% for Africa, to the minimum for Europe of 0.89% (other values: Oceania 1.31%, Asia 0.94%, America 0.90%).

It is therefore clear that Africa and Oceania have registered a reasonable increase in comparison with other areas, but the trends over time can be of more interest than these global figures.

The dynamics of the period under examination ensure that in comparison with 1978, the distribution of bishops in the different areas has remained more or less the same. In particular, the whole of America represents 37.3% of all bishops, followed by Europe with 33%, Asia with 13.8%, Africa with 13.2% and Oceania with 2.7%.

It is also interesting to note the number of priests (both diocesan and religious) per bishop, calculated so as to give a rough idea of the balance between these numbers and the individual continental situations. If this ratio has grown throughout the world in the course of time (113.3 priests per bishop in 1978 and 89 priests in 2000), this can be ascribed above all to the sharp decline in Europe (from 199.9 in 1978 to 139 in 2000).

4. A glance at Table 3 enables us to come to certain conclusions on the numerical variation of priests, diocesan and religious, on the different continents as time has passed.

In 2000, priests numbered 405,178, of these 265,781 were diocesan and 139,397 religious, with a decrease of 3.75% in 1978, the result of a decrease of 12.04% among the diocesan clergy and an increase of 1.26% among religious priests. It can also be seen that the incidence of diocesan and religious priests has not significantly changed in time, and in the three years under review, the figures have been very close to 66% for diocesan priests and 34% for religious priests.

Let us start with the latter whose numbers, apart from an exceptional increase such as occurred in Asia, are generally on the decline.

The number of diocesan priests, on the other hand, shows an upward trend: here the areas where they are decreasing are the exception in a general pattern of growth. It is worth pointing out the case of Africa and Asia, where the trend in growth is considerable and steady.

Let us now consider the distribution of diocesan and religious priests per area and the number of Catholics entrusted to the pastoral care of each one.

In view of the 51.5% of the total number of priests who belong to the European region, 30.0% are of the American clergy; then come the other areas with 10.8% for Asia, 6.7% for Africa and 1.2% for Oceania.

Let us look more closely at the trends in time per continent and per category of clergy. In Europe the diocesan priests are gradually decreasing, whereas the decrease in the number of religious priests is slighter. The trends in Africa, Asia, America and Oceania are different: more or less consistent increases can be seen here, in the number both of religious and diocesan priests.

With regard to the number of Catholics per priest, the worldwide trend cannot but increase, because of the differential of demographic growth among the various zones: thus there has been an increase from 1,797 to 2,215 and 2,579 respectively for the years 1978, 1988 and 2000. Again, the geographical differences are remarkable: from a little under 1,700 Catholics per priest in Oceania to 4,298 in America and 4,786 in Africa.

5. Bishops and priests are naturally assisted in their pastoral activity by other people who work with them; we devote the following observations to their analysis.

Meanwhile, to have an idea of the size of the groups, we note that in 2000 diocesan and religious permanent deacons accounted for half of the professed religious who were not priests (55,000 in 2000) and that in turn, the number of these was 14.5 times less than the number of professed women religious (Tables 4, 5 and 6).

Permanent deacons make up the group that has developed the most in the period: their numbers overall have quintupled on all the continents with a relative increase of 400.25%. This increase occurred in all the continental areas. In Europe, permanent deacons increased by 678%, in America by 333%, in Africa by 297% and in Oceania by 283%.

Professed religious brothers are a group that is steadily decreasing throughout the world: 75,802 were listed in 1978 and in 2000 there were only 55,057. This decrease however, can be ascribed, in order of importance, to the group of Oceania, to that of Europe and to that of America, whereas, conversely, in Africa and in Asia a certain rise in the number of these workers is becoming apparent. These trends have ensured that their respective numbers on the various continents are gradually changing as can be seen from the percentages shown in Table 5.