Is a meeting between Pope Francis and Donald Trump on the horizon?

Rome, Italy, Nov 9, 2019 / 10:54 am (CNA).- Go out to meet the poor, listen to them, and speak to them with the heart of Jesus, Pope Francis said Saturday at Mass in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

The Mass, celebrated on the Feast of the Dedica… […]

Vatican City, Apr 6, 2017 / 11:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- 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.

These and other statistics, released by the Vatican April 6, are contained within the 2017 Pontifical Yearbook, and the 2015 “Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae.” These volumes, compiled by the Central Office of Church Statistics and edited by the Vatican Press, are being distributed in bookstores now.

In terms of clergy, although the number of bishops grew relative to the number of Catholics, globally, the number of priests declined in 2015, in contrast to an upward trend from 2010-2014.

According to the report, the decline is largely attributable to the geographical areas of Europe and North America.

The percentage of priests in the world did increase by 0.83 percent between 2015 and 2010. 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.

If considered with regard to the relationship between the size of the geographic areas and the rest of the world it shows that the relative weight of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, all grew from 2010-2015, while Oceania and Middle East Asia remained stationary.

North America and Europe declined in the same period, which explains why the world-wide decline in priests in 2015 is largely attributable to these two areas.

Overall, Catholics grew globally from 1.272 billion in 2014 to 1.285 in 2015 – representing almost 18 percent of the population.

This “confirms the positive trend in the number of Catholics in the world, especially in the African continent, whose relative weight continues to increase over time,” the report states.

The significance of the Catholic Church in Africa continues to be confirmed as the number of baptized Catholics in the continent grew from 15.5 to 17.3 percent of all Catholics globally.

The growth in Catholics in the Americas and Asia is also important – up 6.7 percent in America and 9.1 percent in Asia – although these numbers fit with overall demographic development in the two continents, according to the report.

On the other hand, Europe’s contribution to the world’s Catholics made a sharp decline from 23.8 percent in 2010 to 22.8 in 2015.

In the period from 2010-2015, there was also a significant growth in the number of bishops, deacons, lay missionaries and catechists, although this is in contrast to a decline in professed religious brothers and sisters.

The priestly vocation crisis is particularly critical in America, the report noted, where the ratio between Catholics and priests exceeds 5,000 Catholics per priest. The ratio in Europe is weakened, with 1,595 Catholics per priest, though this is the most positive ratio in absolute terms.

In Asia the situation improved slightly, from 2,269 to 2,185 Catholics per priest, and Africa is stable with around 5,000 Catholics per priest.

After reaching a peak in 2011, the overall number of seminarians has undergone a gradual decline. Africa is the only continent not to experience this decline, making it the region with the greatest potential in the vocation crisis, the report explained.

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Vatican City, Sep 17, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis thanked sick and elderly priests for their quiet witness to the Gospel Thursday in a message that conveyed the sanctifying value of frailty and suffering. 

“It is especially to you, dear confreres, who experience old age or the bitter hour of illness, that I feel the need to say thank you. Thank you for the testimony of faithful love of God and the Church. Thank you for the silent proclamation of the Gospel of life,” Pope Francis wrote in a message published Sept. 17.

“For our priestly life, frailty can be ‘like a refiner’s fire or a fuller’s lye’ (Malachi 3:2) which, raising us towards God, refines and sanctifies us. We are not afraid of suffering: the Lord carries the cross with us!” the pope said.

His words were addressed to a gathering of elderly and sick clergy Sept. 17 at a Marian shrine in Lombardy, the Italian region hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic. 

In his message, Pope Francis recalled that during the most difficult period of the pandemic — “full of a deafening silence and a desolate emptiness” — many people raised their gaze to heaven.

“In the past few months, we’ve all experienced restrictions. The days, spent in a limited space, seemed interminable and always the same. We missed the dearest affections and friends. The fear of contagion reminded us of our precariousness,” he said.

“Basically, we have experienced what some of you, as well as many other elderly people, experience every day,” the pope added.

The elderly priests and their bishops met at the Santa Maria del Fonte Sanctuary in Caravaggio, a small town in the province of Bergamo where the number of deaths was six times higher in March 2020 than in the previous year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

In the Diocese of Bergamo at least 25 diocesan priests died after contracting COVID-19 this year.

The gathering to honor the elderly is an annual event organized by the Lombardy bishops’ conference. It is now in its sixth year, but this fall it takes on an additional significance in light of heightened suffering experienced in this region of northern Italy, where thousands died amid an eight-week ban on funerals and other liturgical celebrations.

Pope Francis, who is 83 years old himself, said that the experience of this year had been a reminder “not to waste the time that is given to us” and of the beauty of personal encounters. 

“Dear brothers, I entrust each of you to the Virgin Mary. To her, Mother of priests, I remember in prayer the many priests who died of this virus and how many are going through the recovery process. I send you my blessing from the heart. And, please, do not forget to pray for me,” he said.

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