More Global Perspective

American Catholics make up about 5% of the global Catholic population. Catholicism makes up about 50% of the global Christian population, and Christians represent the world’s largest religious tradition, numbering about 31% of the total population of the world.

The Christian Faith seeks to make all one under the Fatherhood of God and through the salvation of his Son Jesus Christ through his Church. Yet even in situations of unity, the Faith has always taken on different forms according to culture and situation. In Libya, for instance, the small Christian population is currently being persecuted, and converting Muslims to Christianity results in death. This makes evangelization look a lot different than it does in our secular liberal society.

In Hungary, and to some extent in Poland, the national cultures have by and large embraced Christianity and Catholicism in particular. The Pope will be visiting Hungary at the end of April, which will bring together two different models of Catholicism. Pope Francis has criticized the German Synodal way and Hungarian nationalism both. Yet if one looks at the history of the Church, there has always been a tension between the national (and local) character of the Church and the global Church: even “Americanism” has been officially condemned by Pope Leo XIII. France refused to receive the Council of Trent even while it still flourished from the fruits of the council.

In Africa there were 9 million Catholics in 1900, and in 2025 there will be over 750 million. All this is just an entrée into saying global trends are massive and difficult to understand. Western Europe and the United States are experiencing a decline in participation in faith, but they are experiencing a decline across the board: extreme population and economic crises, as well as massive increases in suicide and deaths of despair (all while access to physician-assisted suicide expands).

Just because the West, China, and Japan (whose populations are shrinking in addition to aging rapidly) are committing cultural suicide does not mean the Faith itself is in decline. Certain cultures are in decline, and the determination of whether one’s culture is in decline and what it needs from the Gospel is a local reality.

Martyrdom is still heroically alive in the Church as a new report reveals that over 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in recent years.

Latino adults continue to disaffiliate with the Church, highlighting the need to re-evangelize those who have traditionally identified as Catholic.

In the state of Washington, the House and Senate are divided as to whether or not to (attempt to) force priests to violate the seal of the confessional. Washington bishops have already spoken out. Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane addressed his diocese, saying, “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops and priests, are committed to keeping the seal of confession – even to the point of going to jail. The Sacrament of Penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane.”

Finally, Pope Benedict XVI serves as a model and teacher of the rock-solid hope we have in Christ.