1994 STATISTICAL YEARBOOK OF THE CHURCH IS PUBLISHED

VATICAN CITY, JUL 20, 1996 (VIS) - The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, with data up to December 31, 1994, has just been published. This annual volume is edited by the Central Statistics Office of the Church and, says the preface, "contains the most significant data on the life and activity of the Church in the world in 1994."

"The data," continues the preface, "have been obtained by an indirect survey, by sending a questionnaire to the chancery offices of ecclesiastical jurisdictions throughout the world." Due to "various difficulties met with by certain jurisdictions in their apostolate," the survey was conducted with those jurisdictions with which there are regular contacts, that is, 2,696 out of a total of 2,842.

Following is some of the salient data taken from the 1994 yearbook:

Earth's surface: 135,789,528 square kilometers
Population: 5,600,870,000
Catholics: 975,937,000 (17.4 percent)
Ecclesiastical Territories: 2,696
(Latin rite and Eastern rite)

Africa: 444
America: 1,005
Asia: 462
Europe: 708
Oceania: 77

Worldwide Church Work Force: 1,800,857

Bishops: 4,257
Priests: 404,461
Permanent Deacons: 21,254
Lay Men Religious: 59,872
Professed Women Religious: 848,455
Members of Secular Institutes: 31,730
Lay Missionaries: 2,880
Catechists in the Missions: 427,940

Welfare Institutions: 105,017

(Hospitals; dispensaries; leprosaria; homes for the old, ill and handicapped: orphanages; nurseries; marriage counselling centers; other charitable and welfare institutions):

Africa: 12,712
America: 38,942
Asia: 18,776
Europe: 33,136
Oceania: 1,451

Educational Institutions: 173,758

Kindergartens: 53,790
Elementary: 83,345
Secondary schools: 32,904
Higher institutes and universities: 3,719

An informative note on the 1994 Statistical Yearbook of the Church examines the dynamic of priestly vocations throughout the world between 1970 and 1994. It notes that after having fallen to a minimum in 1975, vocations have been progressively increasing, with variations registered during this period.

Between 1970 and 1994, the number of major seminarians changed a good deal. After hitting its lowest level in 1975, a constant increase was verified, reaching 105,075 in 1994.

According to the world geographical distribution, in Africa the number of major seminarians between 1970 and 1994 grew at a great pace, reaching an increase of 393.5 percent. In North America, there has been a continuous decrease, with a variation of -60.4 percent in these 25 years. In Central America, after a crisis that halted in 1975, a strong recovery began, reaching more that 165.1 percent in 1994. In South America there has been no crisis of vocations, and there has been a constant increase in the number of major seminarians, which in 1994 surpassed by 253.3 percent that of 1970.

In the Middle East there has been constant growth since 1985 and in Southeast Asia the number of seminarians has increased since 1974, reaching more that 152.5 percent in 1994 with respect to the minimum of 20 years earlier.

The number of seminarians in Europe grew between 1978 and 1987, and since then there has been a stable phase until 1994. All together, the period from 1978 to 1994 has seen an increase of 23.4 percent.

In Oceania, after hitting the lowest level in 1978, there have been a series of ups and downs in the following years and the number of seminarians in 1994 was even lower, by 32.8 percent, than that of 1970.

The note concludes by saying that from this analysis one can deduce that the global rate of 10.77 seminarians per 100,000 Catholics relative to 1994 is the result of totally different continental circumstances. The figures pass from a maximum of 25.57 in Southeast Asia to 16.65 in Africa, 10.89 in Oceania, 10.27 in Europe, 8.25 in North America, 7.21 in Central America and 6.53 in South America.
.../1994 STATISTICAL YEARBOOK/OS VIS 960722 (650)