Vatican yearbook reflects appointments, statistics from 2003

Published: 2004-02-03

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In addition to naming 30 new cardinals in 2003, Pope John Paul II named 175 new bishops around the world and created 19 new dioceses. The new titles, names, addresses, telephone numbers and local statistics are listed in the Vatican's 2004 yearbook, the Annuario Pontificio. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, and personnel from the Vatican's Central Office of Church Statistics presented the first copy of the 2004 volume to Pope John Paul during a Feb. 3 audience. The book, which runs more than 2,000 pages, usually goes on sale in late February. The names of the world's cardinals and bishops in the new volume reflect the situation as of Dec. 31, 2003, while the statistics on the number of Catholics, priests, religious, seminarians and parishes refer to data solicited Dec. 31, 2002, from every diocese in the world. According to a Vatican press release, at the end of 2002 there were more than 1.07 billion Catholics in the world, an increase of 11 million over the previous year. Out of a world population of more than 6.2 billion people, it said, Catholics account for 17.2 percent.

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