Catholicism is the largest religion in the EU, with 44% of people identifying themselves as a Catholic in a survey in 2023 Eurobarometer. Although practically no one is identified as Catholic among Protestant Nordic or Orthodox Greece and Bulgaria, they represented up to 70% of respondents in Italy; 80% in Portugal, Croatia and Lithuania; And more than 90% in Poland.
For the moment, the wide and historically rooted Catholic machine from Europe also eclipses that of other continents, with many more priests than any other continent, according to a statistical update in 2022 published last year.
Zoom on the world scene, however, Europe stands out as a continent on the decline.
In 2022, the number of Catholics increased on four continents out of five. “Only in Europe, there is a decrease,” said the statistical update of the Church.
Despite a remarkable increase in the number of adult baptisms in Belgium and France, countries have also recorded a major decrease in the overall number of baptism in recent decades. Countries like Belgium and Germany have also seen a significant number of requests to withdraw from the baptism register.
During this conclave, Europe will have three times more voting cardinals than Africa. But while a fifth of world Catholics was in Europe, Africa housed almost as much, and there was the largest growing Catholic population thanks to countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
Catholics represent only a small part of the population of Asia, but they represent 11% of the world’s Catholic population and the Church has also recorded growing figures.
The Americas are distinguished as the most Catholic of all. Continents house approximately half of the world’s Catholic population, supported by Brazil. However, like Africa, the cardinals of South America are more numerous than European cardinals during this conclave.
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