Vatican City, 16 April 2015 (VIS) – The Annuarium Pontificium 2015 and the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2013 have been issued this morning. The former reveals some new aspects of the life of the Church that have emerged between February 2014 and February 2015, and the latter illustrates the changes that took place in 2013.
The statistics referring to the year 2013, show the dynamics of the Catholic Church in the world’s 2,989 ecclesiastical circumscriptions. It may be seen that in this period one diocese and two eparchies have been elevated to the level of metropolitan sees; three new episcopal sees, three eparchies and one archiepiscopal exarchate have been erected; one territorial prelature has been elevated to a diocese, and one apostolic prefecture to an apostolic vicariate.
Since 2005, the number of Catholics worldwide has increased from 1,115 million to 1,254 million, an increase of 139 million faithful. During the last two years, the presence of baptised Catholics in the world has increased from 17.3% to 17.7%.
There has been a 34% increase in Catholics in Africa, which has experienced a population increase of 1.9% between 2005 and 2013. The increase of Catholics in Asia (3.2% in 2013, compared to 2.9% in 2005) has been higher than that of population growth in Asia. In America Catholics continue to represent 63% of a growing population. In Europe, where the population is stagnant, there has been a slight increase in the number of baptised faithful in recent years. The percentage of baptised Catholics in Oceania remains stable although in a declining population.
From 2012 to 2013 the number of bishops has increased by 40 from 5,133 to 5,173. In North America and Oceania there has been a reduction of 6 and 5 bishops respectively, in contrast to an increase of 23 in the rest of the American continent, 5 in Africa, 14 in Asia and 9 in Europe.
The number of priests, diocesan and religious, increased from 414,313 in 2012 to 415,348 in 2013.
Candidates to the priesthood – diocesan and religious – dropped from 120,616 in 2011 to 118,251 in 2013 (-2%). An increase of 1.5% is recorded in Africa, compared to a decrease of 0.5% in Asia, 3.6% in Europe and 5.2% in North America.
The number of permanent deacons continues to grow well, passing from 33,391 in 2005 to 43,000 in 2013. They are present in North America and Europe in particular (96.7%), with the remaining 2.4% distributed between Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The number of professed religious other than priests has grown by 1%, from 54,708 in 2005 to 55,000 in 2013. They have increased in number in Africa by 6% and Asia by 30%, and decreased in America (2,8%), Europe (10.9%) and Oceania (2%). The significant reduction in women religious is affirmed: currently 693,575 compared to 760,529 in 2005: -18.3% in Europe, -17.1 % in Oceania, and -15.5 in America. However, an increase of 18% in Africa and 10% in Asia is recorded….
At Santa Marta on Thursday morning, Francis offered Mass for Benedict XVI on his 88th birthday, inviting the faithful
present to join him in praying “that the Lord sustain him and grant him much
joy and happiness”. In his homily, the
Pontiff spoke of obedience, a prominent theme in the day’s liturgy. He began by
quoting words from the end of the passage from the Gospel according to John
(3:31-35): “he who does not obey the Son shall not see life”. Then, referring
to the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (5:27-33), the Pontiff also
recalled what “the Apostles said to the high priests: we must obey God rather
than men”. Obedience, Francis
explained, “often leads us down a path which isn’t the one we think it should
be: there is another, the obedience of Jesus who says to the Father in the
Garden of Olives: “Thy will be done”. In so doing Jesus “obeys and saves us
all”. Thus, we must be ready to “obey, to have the courage to change directions
when the Lord asks this of us”. And “for this reason, he who obeys will have
eternal life”, whereas for “he who does not obey, the wrath of God rests upon
him”. “Within this
framework”, the Pontiff said, “we can reflect upon the First Reading” — more
specifically on the “dialogue between the Apostles and the high priests”. The
“story began a bit earlier” in the same chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
Thus, he summarized, “the Apostles preached to the people and would stand at
Solomon’s Portico. The whole populace would go there to hear them: they worked
miracles and the number of believers was growing”. But “a small group wouldn’t
dare join them, out fear, they were distant”. Yet, the Pope said, “even from
nearby places, from nearby villages, they brought the sick to the squares, on
pallets, so that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of
them and would heal them. And they were healed”. However, the narrative
of the Acts continues, “the priests and the people’s leaders became angry”:
indeed, they were “filled with jealousy because the people were following the
Apostles, exalting them, praising them”. And therefore they gave the order to
“throw them in prison”. But, Francis continued, “at night an angel of God freed
them, and this was not the first time”. That’s why, when “the
priests met in the morning to judge them, the prison was closed, securely
locked, and they weren’t there”. Then they learned that the Apostles had gone
back again to Solomon’s Portico, to preach to the people. And so once again the
priests had them brought in. The passage from the
Acts offered in the day’s liturgy, the Pontiff stated, recounts just what
happened at that moment: the captain and the officers “brought the Apostles and
presented them to the Sanhedrin”. And again, the Scripture reads that “the high
priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this
name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to
bring this man’s blood upon us’”. In response to these
accusations, Peter replied: “We must obey God rather than men”. And thus
“salvation history repeats up to Jesus”. But “in hearing Peter’s kerygma,
Peter’s preaching on the people redemption which God performed through Jesus”,
the members of the Sanhedrin “were enraged and wanted to kill them”. They were,
in fact, “incapable of recognizing the salvation of God” despite being
“doctors” who had “studied the history of the people, studied the prophecies,
studied the law, thus they knew all the theology of the people of Israel, the
revelation of God, they knew everything: they were doctors”. The question is “why
was there there this hardness of heart?”. Yes, the Pope said, it wasn’t a
matter of “hardheadedness, it wasn’t simple stubbornness”. The hardness was in
their hearts. And therefore “one could ask: what is the route to this total
stubbornness of head and heart? How does one reach this closure, which even the
Apostles had before the Holy Spirit came”. Indeed, Jesus said to the two
disciples at Emmaus: “O foolish men, and slow to believe the things of God”. At its root, Francis
explained, “the story of this stubbornness, the route, is in closing oneself
off, not engaging in dialogue, it is the lack of dialogue”. Those were people
who “didn’t know how to dialogue, they didn’t know how to dialogue with God
because they didn’t know how to pray and to hear the Lord’s voice; and they
didn’t know how to dialogue with others”. This closure to
dialogue led them to interpret “the law in order to make it more precise, but
they were closed to the signs of God in history, they were closed to the
people: they were closed, closed”. And “the lack of dialogue, this closure of
heart, led them not to obey God”. After all, “this is the
tragedy of these doctors of Israel, these theologians of the People of God:
they didn’t know how to listen, they didn’t know how to dialogue”. This is
because, the Pope explained, “dialogue is done with God and with our brothers”.
And “this rage and desire to silence all those who preach, in this case the
newness of God, that is, Jesus is Risen” is clearly “the sign that one doesn’t
know how to dialogue, that a person isn’t open to the voice of the Lord, to the
signs that the Lord makes among his people”. Therefore, although they had no
reason to, they became infuriated and wanted to put the disciples to death. “It
is a painful route”, Francis remarked, also because “these are the same men who
paid the guards at the tomb to say that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body:
they do everything possible not to open themselves to God’s voice”. Before continuing with
the celebration of the Eucharist —
“which is the life of God, who speaks to us from on high, as Jesus says to
Nicodemus” — Francis prayed “for the masters, for the doctors, for those who
teach the People of God, that they never be closed, that they dialogue, and
thus save themselves from the wrath of God which, should they not change their
attitude, will rest upon them”….
(Vatican Radio) A communique from the Holy See’s Press office on Thursday announced that Pope Francis will make an apostolic visit to three Latin American countries in early July. It said following invitations from the respective heads of state and the Catholic Bishops, the Pope will be in Ecuador from the 6-8th, Bolivia from the…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Friday with members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious as the group released a report on the implementation of its doctrinal assessment by the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The LCWR is an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday offered the Mass at Casa Santa Marta for his predecessor, the Pope Emeritus, on the occasion of Benedict XVI’s 88th birthday. “I want to remember that today is the birthday of Benedict XVI,” Pope Francis said at the liturgy. “I offered the Mass for him, and I invite you to pray for him, that the Lord might sustain him and grant him much joy and happiness.”
In his homily, Pope Francis said those who do not know to dialogue do not obey God; they want to silence those who preach the newness of God.
Obeying God means having the courage to change paths
The liturgy of the day speaks to us about obedience, the Pope said. “Obedience often brings us along a path that is not the one I think should be, but along another path.” To obey is “to have the courage to change paths when the Lord asks this of us.” “The one who obeys has life eternal,” while for “the one who does not obey, the wrath of God remains upon him.” So, in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the priests and leaders order the disciples of Jesus to stop preaching the Gospel to the people: they became infuriated, they are “full of jealousy,” because miracles took place in the presence of the disciples, the people followed them, “and the number of believers grew.” They put the disciples in jail, but in the night, the Angel of the Lord freed them and they returned to proclaiming the Gospel. When he was arrested and questioned again, Peter responded to the threats of the high priest: “We must obey God rather than men.” The priests did not understand:
But they were teachers, they had studied the history of the people, they had studied the prophecies, they had studied the law, they knew all about the theology of the people of Israel, the revelation of God, they knew everything, they were teachers, and they were incapable of recognizing the salvation of God. But why this hardness of hard? Because it is not a hardness of the head, it is not simple stubbornness. Here it is hardness… And one can ask: What is the path of this stubbornness, this total stubbornness, of head and of heart?
The one who doesn’t know to dialogue does not obey God
“The history of this stubbornness, the journey,” the Pope emphasized, “is that of closing in on oneself, is that of not dialoguing, it is the lack of dialogue”:
They didn’t know to dialogue, they didn’t know to dialogue with God, because they didn’t know to pray and to hear the voice of God, and they didn’t know to dialogue with others. ‘But why did they understand in this way?’ They only interpreted how the law could be more precise, but they were closed to the signs of God in history, they were closed to the people, to their people. They were closed, closed. And the lack of dialogue, this closure of the heart, brought them to the point of not obeying God. This is the drama of these teachers of Israel, of these theologians of the people of God: they didn’t know to listen, they didn’t know to dialogue. Dialogue takes place with God and with the brethren.
The one who does not dialogue wants to silence those who preach the newness of God
And the sign that reveals that a person “does not know to dialogue,” “is not open to the voice of the Lord, to the signs that the Lord does among the people,” the Pope said, is the “fury and the desire to silence all those who preach in this case the newness of God, that is that Jesus is Risen. There’s no reason, but they reach this point. It is a sorrowful journey. These are the same people that paid the guards at the sepulchre to say that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus. They did everything they could to not open themselves to the voice of God.”
And in this Mass let us pray for the teachers, for the doctors, for those who teach the people of God, that they would not be closed in on themselves, that they would dialogue, and so save themselves from the wrath of God, which, if they do not change their attitude, will remain upon them.
(from Vatican Radio)…