A very good question. I don't know about practicing Catholics per priest. But according the most recent Vatican statistics, the number of Catholics (in general) per priest in Europe is indeed the lowest of any continent. It's 1,812 for Europe, 2,111 for Asia, 2,503 for Oceania, 5,077 for Africa, and 5,592 for the Americas. Europe is well below the global average of 3,408 Catholics per priest. But the number of Catholics per priest in Europe is growing and I imagine Asia could eventually become the lowest, depending on what happens this century.
I heard the Hungarian Greek Catholics talk about downward trends similar to what we experience in the Latin Rite vocations. Of the 14 ordinations listed by Luke, only 2 are Eastern Rite.
Yes, but maybe 6% of Catholics in Hungary are Greek Catholic, yet 1/7th of the priestly ordinations are. So they are doing better than the Latin Church.
Sure, it's not a bad number in light of the Latin ones, I just wanted to stress that the current decline of traditional institutional denominations also hits them hard, it's not like they're trending upward while every other denomination bleeds members.
The decline of priestly vocations, especially in former Communist countries, reminds me of the words of the late Polish Cardinal and theologian with a Hungarian name Stanislaw Nagy: "Communism was not able to destroy Catholicism in Eastern Europe, but Free Masonry was successful in destroying Catholicism in Western Europe." Unfortunately, now Free Masonry and its promotion of hedonistic materialism and push to destroy the Catholic Church and its moral backbone has led to the sharp decline of priestly ordinations in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, etc. My former Archdiocese of Wroclaw, the one with no priestly ordinations this year, is located in one of the most liberal cities in Poland with an archbishop, by the way, who is probably the most anti-TLM in the entire country, restricting it to one church and one priest. But I think the main reason in the decline of vocations is the lack of children in Poland. When I was in Wroclaw (the third largest city in Poland) in 2023 for their archdiocesan Corpus Christi procession, I had my son (who had just received his First Holy Communion in the U.S.) participate in it. He was one of four boys in the procession who had received First Holy Communion that year, when I remember hundreds of boys (and girls) participating in the 1980's when I was growing up in Wroclaw. It is difficult to impossible to have vocations to the priesthood and religious life when married couples have on average one kid and even having three kids is considered an excessively large family (though Poland and Wroclaw itself give special "large family cards" to any family with 3 kids or more with quite generous discounts and privileges).
Priestly Ordinations is a 'lagging statistic'. That is, whatever the trend is in terms of the influence of Catholic Christianity on the daily life of people in the pews, new priestly ordinations is 5-8 years downstream of that shift. The better measure is: how many seminarians does a country have, relative to its Catholic population? Of course, not every country has its own CARA.
As a region, does Europe still have the lowest number of practicing Catholics per priest?
A very good question. I don't know about practicing Catholics per priest. But according the most recent Vatican statistics, the number of Catholics (in general) per priest in Europe is indeed the lowest of any continent. It's 1,812 for Europe, 2,111 for Asia, 2,503 for Oceania, 5,077 for Africa, and 5,592 for the Americas. Europe is well below the global average of 3,408 Catholics per priest. But the number of Catholics per priest in Europe is growing and I imagine Asia could eventually become the lowest, depending on what happens this century.
(These figures come from https://www.fides.org/en/stats)
Nicely played. That is the most helpful 'bigger picture' data!
The Byzantine Catholic Church in Europe is doing reasonably well.
Which one do you mean, Kurt? The Ruthenians (commonly called Byzantine) or a different Eastern Catholic Church?
The Greek Catholics in Europe -- in Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, etc.
I heard the Hungarian Greek Catholics talk about downward trends similar to what we experience in the Latin Rite vocations. Of the 14 ordinations listed by Luke, only 2 are Eastern Rite.
Yes, but maybe 6% of Catholics in Hungary are Greek Catholic, yet 1/7th of the priestly ordinations are. So they are doing better than the Latin Church.
Sure, it's not a bad number in light of the Latin ones, I just wanted to stress that the current decline of traditional institutional denominations also hits them hard, it's not like they're trending upward while every other denomination bleeds members.
fair point.
Con.tra.ception. Such an awful scourge, everywhere.
The decline of priestly vocations, especially in former Communist countries, reminds me of the words of the late Polish Cardinal and theologian with a Hungarian name Stanislaw Nagy: "Communism was not able to destroy Catholicism in Eastern Europe, but Free Masonry was successful in destroying Catholicism in Western Europe." Unfortunately, now Free Masonry and its promotion of hedonistic materialism and push to destroy the Catholic Church and its moral backbone has led to the sharp decline of priestly ordinations in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, etc. My former Archdiocese of Wroclaw, the one with no priestly ordinations this year, is located in one of the most liberal cities in Poland with an archbishop, by the way, who is probably the most anti-TLM in the entire country, restricting it to one church and one priest. But I think the main reason in the decline of vocations is the lack of children in Poland. When I was in Wroclaw (the third largest city in Poland) in 2023 for their archdiocesan Corpus Christi procession, I had my son (who had just received his First Holy Communion in the U.S.) participate in it. He was one of four boys in the procession who had received First Holy Communion that year, when I remember hundreds of boys (and girls) participating in the 1980's when I was growing up in Wroclaw. It is difficult to impossible to have vocations to the priesthood and religious life when married couples have on average one kid and even having three kids is considered an excessively large family (though Poland and Wroclaw itself give special "large family cards" to any family with 3 kids or more with quite generous discounts and privileges).
Singapore has ordained one (Carmelite) this year and 1 upcoming (diocesan) in August
Priestly Ordinations is a 'lagging statistic'. That is, whatever the trend is in terms of the influence of Catholic Christianity on the daily life of people in the pews, new priestly ordinations is 5-8 years downstream of that shift. The better measure is: how many seminarians does a country have, relative to its Catholic population? Of course, not every country has its own CARA.
Spain seems to be a bright spot (at least in terms of seminarians). Hopefully that trend continues.
So while Africa has some 5000 faithful per priest, they can still send large numbers to Europe to plug the gap in our vocations.