VATICAN CITY, FEB 20, 1999 (VIS) - Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano this morning presented the 1999 "Annuario Pontificio" or pontifical yearbook, to Pope John Paul, in the presence of Archbishop Giovanni Battista Re and officials from the Statistics Office of the Church and the Vatican printing office.
A communique released today, stating that the new yearbook is updated to December 31, 1998, also outlined some of the salient statistics of the Church.
During 1998 the Holy See established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Palau and the Republic of Yemen, bringing to 168 the number of countries with which it has such relations.
Also last year, 12 new bishoprics, an apostolic vicariate and three metropolitan sees were created, and 137 bishops were appointed.
Catholics for the first time exceed one billion worldwide, equal to 17.3 percent of the total population. They constitute 62.9 percent of the population on the American continent, 41.4 in Europe, 27.5 in Oceania, 14.9 in Africa and 3 percent in Asia. Globally there are 219,369 parishes and 115,311 missionary stations.
At the end of 1997, those involved in pastoral activity included: 4,420 bishops, 404,208 priests (of whom 263,521 are diocesan), 24,407 permanent deacons, 877,477 religious, 31,197 members of secular institutes, 26,068 lay missionaries and 2,019,021 catechists.
Vocations in 1997 increased by 2.5 percent over the preceding year. The total number of priests was practically unchanged but the number of permanent deacons increased by 4.1 percent. There was, however. a decline of 1.3 percent among religious.
SS;PONTIFICAL YEARBOOK;...;SODANO; RE;VIS;19990222;Word: 230;
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