Posted by
Tom G. on Thursday, April 03, 2008 2:00:53 PM
the Vatican announced rather quietly this past week that they have determined that Catholicism has been over taken by Islam as the most prolific Religion in the World. Of Course, if you take Christianity as a whole, it out weighs Islam. The overall affect of this announcement is as much a culture change as a religious one. Child birth is the underlying element that has caused the loss of dominance in the total number count. Overall, In 2005 Catholicism found itself growing by 1.5%.
In particular, European losses related to the slow growth have born the greatest impact on total numbers, where Europe grew ever so slightly. Arguably, Europe has experienced a movement from Catholicism becuase of there move to secular beliefs, but inside the European Catholic community, it has been low child birth rates. Around the World, Catholicism has remained a strong and steady force, but in Europe we find declines due to mainly the size of families. While experiencing the losses the the so-called white world, Hispanic, African and Asain growth has remained steady.
Over all, Africa saw the greatest growth of 3.1%, followed by Asia at 2.7 and the America's settled in at 1.2%. This is a huge issue since this 1.12 billion Population of Catholics is served by some 400 thousand Priests, with about 114 thousand Seminarians.
What we find, in conclusion, is that the World is growing more Islamic. Christianity is about 1/3 of the world's pop and the sub-set of Catholicism is about 17%. Islam is growing faster than all other religions and is at about 19%. With just over 2 billion Chritians the issue boils down to affluance.
Yes, Affluance, People who acheive are less likely to bear children in traditional numbers leaving an exchange in population rather than a growth. The Church who had been sterotyped by large families has been subjected to the 'freezing' of numbers due to Affluance.
Europe has had to bring in labor, mostly from North Africa and is fast falling to secular islam in codifiying the religion in various nations. As the culture Islam replaces the Christian and Catholic tradition in Europe, the growth rate will be set by the birth rate of particpants in these religions.
So, the order of the day, is to protect your faith, grow your family. Many Christain denominations are do just this as well as bringing in converts at healthy numbers. Whereas, Catholics are not necessarily growing at a healthy rate...