Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On the occasion of the Pan African Congress on Evangelisation we give statistics on the presence of the Catholic Church in Africa taken from the most recent edition of the Church’s Book of Statistics, which refers to 31 December 2004. (Variations compared to previous year are also indicated).

WORLD POPULATION – CATHOLICS

Population Catholics Percentage
Africa 876,720,000 (+ 26,162,000) 148,817,000 (+ 5,158,000) 16.97 % (+ 0.08)
world 6,388,500,000 (+ 87,123,000) 1,098,366,000 (+12,809,000) 17.19% (- 0.04)



PERSONS /CATHOLICS PER PRIEST

persons per priest Catholics per priest
Africa 28,047 (+ 86) 4,761 (+ 38)
world 12,448 (+ 184) 2,706 (+ 29)


ECCLESIASTICAL CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS– MISSION STATIONS

Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions Mission Stations
with resident priest Mission Stations
without resident priest
Africa 507 (+ 2) 378 (+ 68) 65,689 (+ 936)
world 2,903 (+ 10) 1,600 (- 101) 115,181 (+ 3,066)



BISHOPS

total diocesan bishops Religious bishops
Africa 630 (- 2) 457 (+ 8) 173 (- 10)
world 4,784 (+ 42) 3,616 ( + 1019) 1,168 (- 977)


PRIESTS

total Diocesan priests Religious priests
Africa 31,259 (+ 840) 20,358 (+ 799) 10,901 (+ 41)
world 405,891 (+ 441) 268,833 (+ 792) 137,058 (- 351)


PERMANENT DEACONS

total Diocesan
Permanent deacons Religious
Permanent deacons
Africa 368 (+ 32) 350 (+ 26) 18 (+ 6)
world 32,324 (+ 800) 31,809 (+ 809) 515 (- 9)


RELIGIOUS BROTHERS AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS

Brothers Women Religious
Africa 7,791 (+ 421) 57,475 (+ 1,066)
world 55,030 (+ 410) 767,459 (- 8,810)



MEMBERS OF SECULAR INSTITUTES


Members of secular institutes
Male Members of secular institutes
Female
Africa 47 (+ 8) 481 (+ 7)
world 672 (- 19) 28,270 (- 646)


LAY MISSIONARIES AND CATECHISTS

Lay missionaries Catechists
Africa 3,926 (+ 1,293) 379,656 (+ 16,865)
world 186,467 (+ 14,136) 2,940,798 (+ 93,125)
MAJOR SEMINARIANS – DIOCESAN AND RELIGIOUS
total
Diocesan
Major seminarians Religious
Major seminarians
Africa 22,791 (+ 882) 15,960 (+ 298) 6,831 (+ 584)
world 113,044 (+ 671) 71,841 (- 425) 41,203 (+ 1,096)


MINOR SEMINARIANS – DIOCESAN AND RELIGIOUS

total
diocesan
minor seminarians religious
minor seminarians
Africa 45,535 (+ 2,230) 41,393 (+ 2,033) 4,142 (+ 197)
World 101,585 (+ 3,213) 77,133 (+ 1,571) 24,452 (+ 1,642)


SCHOOLS AND PUPILS

INFANT
schools
children PRIMARY
schools pupils SECONDARY
schools PUPILS High school
pupils UNIVERSITY
Pupils
Africa 11,102 1,014,584 31,130 11,985,138 7,968 3,021,647 55,753 54,127
world 63,073 6,312,115 91,090 27,975,541 38,277 15,868,173 1,830,149 2,399,022



HOSPITALS/CLINICS,CHARITY WORK,WELFARE


hospitals Dispensaries Leprosy
centres Homes for the elderly, chronically ill, disabled orphanages Kinder-
gartens Marriage
Counselling
centres. other institutes total
Africa 953 4,922 236 638 1,675 1,236 1,407 1,789 12,856
world 5,246 17,224 648 14,927 10,163 10,932 13,866 10,516 83,522

ECCLESIASTICAL CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS DEPENDENT ON THE
CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELISATION OF PEOPLES

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples is at the service of the Pope as the “central body for promoting, directing and co-ordinating” the activity of evangelisation of peoples and missionary cooperation throughout the world (cfr.¬ Ad gentes, 29; Pastor bonus,85). The main duties of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples include: guarantee proper distribution of missionaries and formation for local secular clergy and catechists; entrust Religious Institutes, or Mission Societies, or particular Churches with the evangelisation of mission territories.

Ecclesiastical circumscriptions dependent on the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples (CEP) to 17 October 2006:

1084 Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions dependent on the CEP

Continent AD D AT VA PA M AA OM Totale
Africa 84 374 - 14 8 1 1 3 485
America 7 31 - 44 1 2 - 85
Asia 75 332 1 15 36 3 4 2 468
Oceania 11 31 - - 1 2 - 1 46

Totale 177 768 1 73 46 8 5 6 1084

INFO: archdiocese (AD), diocese (D), territorial abbacy (AT), apostolic vicariate (VA), apostolic prefecture (PA), apostolic administration (AA), Mission sui juris (M), military Ordinariate (OM). (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 13/1/2007)