New Vatican yearbook shows growth of church

Published: 2005-01-31

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As Pope John Paul II took a rare sick day, he was given a thick tome to thumb through: the first copy of the 2005 "Annuario Pontificio," the Vatican yearbook. The book was delivered to the pope Jan. 31, a day the pope suspended his appointments because of the flu, said Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the Vatican spokesman. Initial figures from the book compiled by the Vatican's statistics office contained some good news, for example, that the world's Catholic population grew from 1.07 billion in 2002 to 1.08 billion in 2003, the last year for which complete figures are available, and that the number of Catholics in Africa grew by 4.5 percent; in Asia by 2.2 percent; in Oceania by 1.3 percent; in North and South America by 1.2 percent. Europe reported "a situation of practical stability."

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