Catholic Church grows as Americas, Europe trail in priestly vocations
The percentage of priests in the world increased by 0.83 percent between 2010 and 2015. With priests, Africa and Asia show a sustained growth dynamic, while the Americas remained almost stationary in that period. Europe and Oceania recorded negative rates of growth.
According to Vatican statistics released Thursday, the Church in the Americas lags behind globally when it comes to the number of seminarians per number of Catholics.
In 2015, the Americas had 53.6 seminarians per one million Catholics, trailing just behind Europe with 65.0 seminarians per million Catholics. This is in comparison to Asia’s 245.7 and Africa’s 130.6 seminarians per million Catholics.
The Americas’ low seminarian rate occurs despite the continent’s hold on the highest percentage of baptized Catholics in the world – 49 percent.