Catholic Pope

July 29th, 2010

Catholic Pope

Muslims Trump Catholics

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, or Ratzinger, whichecer name yu're more comfortable with needs to be aware that his baptizing a Muslim into the Catholic faith didn't make much of a dent in the Islamic totals as Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006. He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population -- or about 2 billion people.

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion. Maybe the Papa should not be publicizing the Islamic converts with such a trend going on.

Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates. But, if the Sunni and Shiite societies keep killing each other, maybe that trend will change.

But if bin Laden has his way, there will be not only fewer Catholics but the 112th Pope will need to be selected as well.

Who said religion was the opiate of the people? It's beginning to look like religion is the death of the people, regardless of what religion you're mentionaing. A pretty sad commentary- all the things we religious types do in the "name of God" of course.

About the Author

ernie@lrchouston.com