How many catholics in africa

Don't waste chance to save planet, pleads Pope Francis. China, United States issue surprise joint declaration on climate crisis. Rafael Grossi: Climate crisis could give nuclear energy a second wind. More in in spanish. Most viewed. Most viewed of Perfil. Africa has the fastest growing Catholic population in the world, while Western Europe, once regarded as the heartland of Christianity, has become one of the world's most secular regions , according to the US-based Pew Research Center.

And many of those who do identify themselves as Christian in Western Europe do not regularly attend church. In contrast, Christianity, in its different denominations, is growing across Africa.

It put the number of Catholics in Africa at almost million. The growth in Africa is partly because its overall population is increasing faster than that of any other continent. However, there are other reasons - including the fact that by being part of the Catholic Church people are part of "a social institution that provides a lot of support and security in places where precarious living is very common and widespread," Dr Manglos-Weber says.

The role of Catholics in offering such services "far surpasses what either Protestant churches or Islamic communities have been able to", Dr Manglos-Weber adds.

Pope Francis has also increased African representation in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. Although the majority of cardinals are still from Europe and South America, he has appointed 10 African cardinals, compared to the six of appointed by his predecessor.

Pope Francis is the first pontiff from the Global South, a term used to describe low and middle income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Argentine has gained a reputation as a pope for the disenfranchised and the poor, and has focused on issues such as climate change and inequality in Africa. The pope has already visited five African countries - Kenya, Uganda, Central African Republic, Egypt and Morocco - and on this latest trip, the pontiff will go to Mozambique and the island nations of Madagascar and Mauritius.

Still, the case of Ivory Coast shows how the narrative of continued Catholic growth in Africa does not apply everywhere. Church leaders in the commercial capital of Abidjan say national membership has declined in the past decade, with a considerable number converting to Protestant denominations, especially evangelical faiths.

Some say the church may have lost converts because of the way some church members were involved in strife and violence. In Rwanda in the s, a handful of Hutu Catholic and Protestant church members, including priests and nuns, had roles in massacres in which Hutus killed more than a half-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a genocide orchestrated by the Hutu government.

Paul's Cathedral in Abidjan, said the church provided extensive humanitarian services to victims of the political violence in Ivory Coast in but did not stand up to the perpetrators of the violence. Ivory Coast is not the only African country to lose members to Protestant faiths.

Faulkner said the Catholic Church's continentwide growth figures masked significant variation among different African countries. In Kenya, Faulkner said, the Catholic Church gained credibility for standing up to former president Daniel arap Moi, whose regime became notorious for human rights abuses during his year reign that ended in Although the church's role in Ivory Coast's recent crisis was less dramatic, it nonetheless amounted to something of a black eye for the institution, he said.

Yapo stressed that today the church was committed to working toward reconciliation. As for the possibility of a black pope, Ivorian Catholics express only casual interest in the idea, saying it would have little bearing on their relationship with the church.

Paul's in Abidjan. But as long as the pope works for the will of God, it is not of great importance whether he is black or white.

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