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1. Your article should read 1,196 million, not 1.196 million. An easy enough mistake to make when copying it from the Vatican Insider. Much easier to say 1.196 billion.
   

   Posted By: Joe Paris Lee

2. Joe: The original article gets it right.
   It also does not state (as the above seems to say) that Catholics have decreased in South America and Europe. It says only that the proportion of the world’s Catholics who live in South America and Europe has decreased (as it must if it has increased elsewhere).
   The article has lost in translation though. “412,236 priests, including diocesans and nuns” should read “412,236 priests, including diocesan and religious-order priests”.
   “The decline regards Europe, with less than 905 priests.” Should read “Europe has 905 fewer priests than in 2009.”
   “The trend of decreasing professed religious that are not priests seems to have experienced a setback.” Should read “The trend of decreasing numbers of professed male religious who are not priests (i.e. monks and religious brothers) has been reversed and their numbers have increased.”
   Interesting to see that the annual increase in numbers of priests, which has occurred now for 12 years in a row, is accelerating. Yet still we see opinion articles in the media claiming that the number of priests is declining.

   Posted By: Peter G

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