STATISTICS ON THE CHURCH IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

VATICAN CITY, JUN 12, 2003 (VIS) - On Sunday, June 22 John Paul II will make an apostolic trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina during which he will beatify Servant of God Ivan Merz in Banja Luka. It will be his 101st trip outside of Italy and his second to the country. The Holy Father was last in Sarajevo on April 12-13, 1997.

On the occasion of this pastoral visit, we present some statistics on the Church in this country.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has 4,070,000 inhabitants, of whom 461,000 are Catholic, approximately 11.3 percent of the total population. Currently, there are four bishops, 583 priests, 523 religious and 230 seminarians in the country.

The Catholic Church in this Balkan nation runs 13 primary, middle and secondary schools, attended by more than 3,500 students. In addition, there is one home for the elderly, disabled and handicapped, one orphanage, one day care center and five centers for education and social rehabilitation.

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