Vatican: Muslims now outnumber Catholics
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Vatican City, Mar 31, 2008 / 11:27 am (CNA).- Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, L’Osservatore Romano reported on Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican daily.

According to the most recent figures from the Vatican yearbook of statistics, the number of the world's population that are Muslims is 19.2%, with the number of Catholics trailing behind at 17.4 %. 

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer,” Msgr. Formenti said.

These latest results come from 2006 and are not all Vatican tabulated. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only guarantee its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Mae
Philippines 04/12/2010 12:16 AM EST
If the statistics is true, that Muslims now outnumber Christians, one of the factor I see is financial reason. Those who want to be converted to Islam is being paid a big amount of money... Like in Saudi Arabia, I heard they are giving 6thou-10thou Saudi Riyals. And for people whose belief can be bought, what a disgrace!
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Published by: Barbara Snyder
New York 02/21/2010 08:39 AM EST
Actually, a greater problem is uneducated Catholics who don't know Church history and do not read the Bible. They leave to follow a separated sect, looking for an easier path to God, rather than learning who they are and listening to God and remaining in the Truth. Many leave for the simple reason they are too much in the world and have hardened their hearts. God does not turn away from us; it is we who reject Him! We have a name for separated Christians who study both Church history and the Bible -- we call them converts. Every year their entry into the Church increases, praise God.
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Published by: GFM
St. Louis, MO 06/07/2009 02:16 PM EST
I think the statistics are quite useful. The entire reason behind the Pope's emphasis on the religious revivifcation of Europe has to do with this very issue. Much of what used to be Christian Europe is in a demographic winter, but for the Muslim populations in Germany, France, Austria, even Britain.The inventor of the birth control pill believes Europe is in the midst of a population catastrophe; he called it a "nightmare."

It would be interesting to seek statistics on other Christian denominations.
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Published by: Jason Miller
Santa Paula, CA 93060 03/31/2008 04:41 PM EST
These statistics are not at all useful. First, because you are relying on the self reports of nations which threaten the lives of Christians, there is obviously a significant issue of overestimating Muslims and underestimating Christians. Second, and more significantly, this is a comparison of apples and oranges - a religious category vs. a religious denomination. To make it correct, you would either need to compare "Muslims" vs Christians OR a something like Sunni Muslims vs. Catholics. What you will find then is that Christianity is still the overwhelmingly largest religious category and Catholicism is the overwhelmingly largest denomination. Most impressive is that despite larger birthrates, the percentage of Muslims vs. Christians has not changed significantly over the years. The real issue if you look at the stats is that evangelicals are growing larger in numbers, sucking up Catholics from traditionally Catholic nations (particularly latin america). An entirely different problem.
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