Africa surpasses Europe in Catholic population; Church leaders highlight missionary role

NAIROBI, Kenya — Catholic leaders in Africa have described the Church’s growth there as an opportunity to share its faith, vocations, and missionary experience with the universal Church while continuing to receive gifts from other local Churches.

According to the latest statistics published by Agenzia Fides, Africa’s Catholic population has now surpassed Europe’s, rising to 288.3 million compared with Europe’s 287.2 million. Africa now has the second-largest Catholic population, after the Americas, which the organization counts as one region.

The data Fides used comes from the Church’s Book of Statistics, which is updated yearly. The latest edition includes data through Dec. 31, 2024.

In responses shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa,  Catholic leaders in Africa pointed to families, catechists, pastoral presence, and the witness of missionaries among factors they believe have contributed to the growth.

Catholics in the world numbered 1.4 billion, with an overall increase of 15.8 million Catholics compared with the previous year. As in previous years, increases were registered above all in Africa and in the Americas, followed by Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

The African continent recorded the largest increase in Catholics, adding 7.58 million compared with an increase of 6.99 million in the Americas. Africa gained 1,676 priests, the largest continental increase, compared with a worldwide net increase of 425 priests.

According to the Fides report, Africa was the only continent to register growth in seminarians, adding 786, while the global total declined by 2,891.

Sharing the gift of faith

For Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan’s Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, the findings are a reason for gratitude and renewed missionary responsibility.

“Having received the gift of faith through the missionary witness of others, we are now blessed to share that gift with the universal Church,” Hiiboro said.

As bishop of Tombura-Yambio since 2008, Hiiboro also serves as president of the Integral Human Development Commission of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He said that growth of faith is not a competition.

“Africa is not competing with any continent in the growth of faith. We are part of one universal Church, united in Christ and enriched by the gifts of different peoples and cultures,” he said.

Father Vincent Simba, rector of Nairobi-based St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Seminary, said the increase in Catholics and priests offers hope for Africa and the universal Church.

Simba expressed hope that Africa would have opportunities to send missionaries to places from which the continent received the Christian faith.

Bishop Joseph Kacou Aka of Ivory Coast’s Diocese of Yamoussoukro said the figures are an invitation to deepen communion among local Churches.

“Africa is called to share its gifts: its vocations, its community experience, its theological reflection, and its witness of faith,” he said. “But mission remains a fraternal exchange in which each Church both gives and receives.”

Aka, who was consecrated bishop in 2023, said pastoral action in his diocese is guided by the theme “Autonomous and Missionary Church, Communion of Communities.”

Families, communities, and pastoral presence

In his response to ACI Africa, Hiiboro pointed to family bonds, community life, and openness to God as among the conditions he believes have helped the growth of Christian faith in Africa, alongside the work of missionaries, catechists, priests, women and men religious, and laypeople.

In Nigeria, Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa of the Diocese of Katsina identified the continent’s youthful population, family life, liturgies, and the work of Catholic institutions among factors contributing to growth.

“In Nigeria, parish communities, Catholic schools, hospitals, and lay movements help transmit the faith across generations,” Musa said.

Musa, who also chairs the Communications Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said his diocese had seen its number of seminarians rise from about 21 in 2023 to more than 40 in 2026. 

He cautioned that “demographic growth alone does not explain conversion.”

Father George Omondi, a Kenyan-born member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, commonly known as the Spiritans, pointed to the accessibility of pastoral services.

Omondi, who previously served as vice provincial superior and councilor for formation in the Spiritans’ Kenya and South Sudan Province, recalled seeing an increase in parishes in Kenyan Catholic dioceses, bringing services closer to the faithful.

Omondi said during his parish ministry he also observed adult baptisms and received converts from other churches into the Catholic Church.

In his own response, Aka cautioned against assigning a single cause to the growth. The statistics, he said, “describe a development without, by themselves, establishing its causes,” and do not determine the respective contributions of family transmission, adult baptisms, and demographic factors.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/africa/africa-surpasses-europe-in-catholic-population-church-leaders-highlight-missionary-role