The Church in Africa, by the numbers

Pope Francis is visiting Africa, where countries across the continent have an extremely high rate of Mass attendance and vocations. A look at the numbers.

Pope Francis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan. 31. Credit: Vatican Media

When Pope Francis flew from Italy to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, the pope departed from world’s fifth-largest Catholic country, and landed in the sixth largest.

Long seen as mission territory, Africa is rapidly becoming the center of gravity of global Catholi…