VATICAN CITY, 6 SEP 2011 (VIS) - For the occasion of Benedict XVI's apostolic trip to Germany, due to take place from 22 to 25 September, statistics have been published concerning the Catholic Church in that country. The information, updated to 31 December 2010, comes from the Central Statistical Office of the Church.
Germany has a population of 81,751,000 of whom 24,675,000 (30.18 percent) are Catholic. There are 29 ecclesiastical circumscriptions and 11,483 parishes. Currently there are 113 bishops, 17,274 priests, 28,651 religious, 1,657 lay members of secular institutes and 10,060 catechists. Minor seminarians number 2,303 and major seminarians 1,151.
A total of 1,031,981 students attend 9,439 centres of Catholic education, from kindergartens to universities. Other institutions belonging to the Church or run by priests or religious in Germany include 444 hospitals, 1,368 clinics, 2,804 homes for the elderly or disabled, 1,172 orphanages and nurseries, 2,176 family counselling centres and other pro-life centres, 2,204 centres for education and social rehabilitation, and 468 institutions of other kinds.
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