Let us pray for the continued explosive growth of the
Catholic Church in Africa. Millions flocked to see
Pope Benedict on his second Papal visit and every
Stadium like this one was packed to have Mass.
The explosive growth of the Church in Africa began
over a century ago and has accelerated in the past
three decades. In 1900, there were 2 million
Catholics in Africa; today, there are over 165
million-- triple the 1978 figure of 55 million. 14% of
Catholics worldwide now live there, nearly half of
the children in Catholic elementary schools study
there, and 43% of the world’s adult baptisms-- over a
million a year-- take place there. There are more
Catholic hospitals in Africa than there are in North
and Central America combined.
Between 1998 and 2007, the number of priests
increased from 26,026 to 34,658, while the number
of women religious grew by over 10,000, from
51,304 to 61,886. Over 14 million African children
attend Catholic elementary schools, while another
3.7 million attend Catholic high schools. Since 1978,
the number of African seminarians has more than
quadrupled from 5,636 to 24,034, and Africa is now
the world’s second most vocation-rich continent,
bested only by Asia.