Catholic Church sees membership rise but number of priests decline

While the number of Catholics worldwide slightly increased from 2021 to 2022, new statistics show that the number of priests continues to decline.

The Vatican released the 2024 Pontifical Yearbook and the 2022 Statistical Yearbook of the Church earlier this month. Edited by the Vatican Secretariat of State's Central Statistical Office, the publications are being distributed in bookstores and published by the Vatican Printing Press.

The publications highlight "statistical data to assess the main trends affecting the evolution of the Catholic Church worldwide," reports Vatican News.

The latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook shows the number of baptized Catholics in the world increased from 1.376 billion in 2021 to 1.39 billion in 2022, which amounted to an increase of 1.0%.

Africa saw the highest rate of increase in the number of Catholics (3%), followed by the Americas (0.9%) and Asia (0.6%). The number of Catholics in Europe remained relatively stable at 286 million, while Oceania "reported stability" as well.

The number of priests worldwide registered a very small decrease between 2021 and 2022. While there were 407,872 priests in 2021, that number dropped to 407,730 a year later.

Even as the number of priests declined worldwide, increases were reported in Africa (3.2%) and Asia (1.6%). On the other hand, the number of priests decreased by 1.7% in Europe and 1.5% in Oceania. The number of priests in the Americas remained "almost stationary."

As the number of priests declined, permanent deacons increased from 2021 to 2022. While deacons can take on some administrative roles within a church and give homilies, they cannot preside over mass.

Worldwide, deacons increased by 2% from 49,176 in 2021 to 50,150 in 2022. In Africa, Asia and Oceania, the number rose by 1.1% from 2021 to 2022, reaching a total of 1,380 in 2022. In the Americas and Europe, permanent deacons saw respective increases of 2.1% and 1.7%.

The Vatican's statistics also examined the number of non-priest professed religious men. In 2022, 49,414 religious men held such positions, a decrease from the 49,774 recorded in 2021.

"The decline was attributable, in order of importance, to the European, African, and Oceanian continents," the Vatican News report stated. "In Asia, on the other hand, religious men increased considerably, and to a lesser extent in the Americas."

The number of religious women in the Catholic Church dropped by 1.6% from 608,958 in 2021 to 599,228 in 2022. While religious women increased by 1.7% in Africa and 0.1% in Southeast Asia, the number of professed religious sisters dropped in South and Central America (2.5%), North America (3%), Europe (3.5%) and Oceania (3.6%).

Looking to the future, the number of seminarians studying to become priests declined by 1.3% from 2021 through 2022. Although seminarians increased by 2.1% in Africa and 1.3% in Oceania, the other regions in the world saw a decrease in the number of men seeking to join the priesthood. A drop in vocations was recorded in Europe (6%), the Americas (3.2%) and Asia (1.2%).

“ More recently, in August 2022, Paglia was sharply criticized by abortion opponents for referring in an Italian television interview to Law 194 — the 1978 law legalizing abortion in Italy — as a “pillar of society.”

That has nothing to do with euthanasia. Also, Paglia speaking in an interview is not "the Catholic Church." It is his own misguided opinion no matter what position he currently holds. The Catholic Church's position on euthanasia (and abortion) remains clear. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.

Abortion

2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:

"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."

"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."

2274 Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.

Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual. . . . It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."

2275 "One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Section 2, Chapter 2, Article 5

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