www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Eastern Catholic Churches Statistics for 2010

Here are the 2010 Eastern Catholic Churches statistics as reported by ANNUARIO PONTIFICIO. They are different in content from Orthodox Church data because they are estimates from individual Eastern Catholic jurisdictions while the 2010 US Orthodox Census (in another topic) contains data obtained directly from local Orthodox parishes. Nevertheless, they can be compared in general terms.

http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat10.pdf

Ah, Tom, you've beaten me to it this year. Last I checked - a couple weeks ago, Father Ron Roberson had not yet posted these, but I guess he did so while I was recuperating.

It's late and I was too tired to do any in-depth comparison of numbers from last year's data to this tonight, but ... after a quick look, I concluded that this is the least exciting set of data in years. Much of it is absolutely unchanged - a few changes are readily believable and explainable, several are absolutely unexplainable, and a few are ludicrous.

My conclusion, it's not much worth the space of discussion this year. Here's a quick rundown:

Armenians - The decrease of 100,000 clearly reflects a closer look being taken at the Eastern European Ordinariate. God bless their Romanian Ordinariate - anyone who reports a change of 6 faithful actually takes the process seriously; note that the numbers in all other jurisdictions are unchanged and rounded.

Copts - A decrease of 3,000 overall, principally in the Patriarchal Eparchy of Alexandria. It may reflect some of the anti-Christian activity of the past year.

Ethiopians/Eritreans - An impressive increase of 13,000, of which 5,000 is in the newest Ethiopian eparchy - returning it to a number that it posted at the time it was first erected, 7 years ago - I am having trouble believing this one. The modest, but consistent, increases in the Eritrean eparchies seem more credible.

Malankara - An increase of 3,000 overall - realistic. The new US exarchate won't be reflected until next year's report.

Syriacs - A decrease of 6,000; 5,000 of which occurred in the Archeparchy of Mossul. Frankly, that there are not corresponding decreases in the other Iraqi jurisdictions is suspicious, given the reportedly high emigration of Christians from Iraq. One would have expected some of those 5,000 to have shown up as an increase in US numbers, but there is a catch-up factor involved and those might not be seen until next year.

Maronites - A reported increase of 90,000 with almost all of it attributable to jurisdictions in Lebanon and (one in) Syria is suspect, to say the least.

Chaldeans - An overall, increase of 45,000. The largest increases are jurisdictions in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, as well as that of San Diego. These are indeed places to which Chaldeans and Assyrians have been relocating from Iraq. That there is not a corresponding drop from Iraqi jurisdictions - this year or last - may be a function of the fact that it has taken longer than usual for the numbers to 'catch-up'. Without going back and looking, it seems to me that there was a year or two (? 2008 or 2007) in which there were large decreases in the Iraqi jurisdictions that lacked counterpart increases in eparchies outside the war zone.

Malabarese - An increase of 16,000, accounted for by population shifts scattered throughout the Indian eparchies, with the biggest changes in the Metropolitan Archeparchy of Trichur (increase of 14,000) and the Eparchy of Palai (decease of 22,000). Those two numbers sound as if there may have been territorial shifts, but I didn't check to verify that.

Melkites - A modest increase of 11,000 with almost all of it attributable to 5,000 member increases in the Australian eparchy and the Archeparchy of Saida in Lebanon. The former seems possible; the latter seems unlikely. Most jurisdictions don't look as though anyone did more than photocopy the prior year numbers.

Ukrainians - Increase of 40,000 with the majority of change being attributable to L'viv (85,000 increase) and Odessa-Krym (18,000 increase) and the UK (40,000 decrease) and Germany-Scandinavia (20,000 decrease). Most other jurisdictions in the diaspora didn't bother to report any changes.

Ruthenians - Overall increase of 8,000, attributable to a claimed 9,000 increase in Mukacevo. All US juridictions reported small decreases.

Romanians - A 17,000 decrease, of whom 13,000 are attributable to the Metropolitan Archeparchy. There are, of course, no numbers for those whom we know are in the diaspora (Italy, in particular) and uncounted by reason of being without a hierarch.

Croatians, including Serbians & Montenegrons - Basically unchanged.

Macedonians - Also unchanged.

Greeks - There is a reported increase of 200 in the Athenian exarchate. It may represent workers from Eastern Europe, as it is known that there are some there.

Bulgarians - The numbers never change.

Slovaks - The census reports a much more realistic 239,000+ this year versus the 707,000+ erroneously reported last year when Bratislavia's first reported numbers (it was erected in 2008) were grossly overinflated.

Italo-Greico-Albanians - Essentially unchanged.

Hungarians - Unchanged.

Albanians - A small increase is shown; however, it cannot be credibly relied upon given that only 1 of the 9 parishes in the Apostolic Administration is Byzantine (the others are Latin, subject to the Byzantine Apostolic Administrator).

Ordinariates - France shows an increase of 15,000 - probably workers and refugees, if it is accurate. The others reflect no changes.

Ho hum!

Many years,

Neil

Ho hum, indeed!

In most cases the numbers of faithful reported seem to be rough estimates. I tend to think that the other figures, such as numbers of priests, religious and not least seminarians, probably give a much better indication of the state of each church, as they are more likely to be accurate.

The statistics of the Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church are rather unrealistic to me.

Number of faithful - 10 000. I have read and heard that they are actually 3000 to 5000 people.

Parishes - 21. The actual number of parishes is lesser. The official site of the Exarchate has listed just 13 parishes - http://kae-bg.org/?act=content&rec=23. This is not surprising. In the past the Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church probably has had 21 parishes but many of them were in villages which are depopulated now. There is demographic crisis in Bulgaria, besides there is strong internal migration from rural areas to major cities. So I guess in 10-15 years probably half of these 13 parishes would not exist for the this reason.

Bishop - 1. True.

Secular priests - 5. To my knowledge they are actually 3. The secular priests are native Bulgarians. They are all celibate.

Religious priests - 16. I guess true. Religious priests are all foreigners belonging to Latin orders, but serving Byzantine parishes in Bulgaria - Polish Resurrectionists, Czech Salesians and Augustinians of the Assumption from their French Province, I think (they are 1 French, 1 Italian and 1 Croat). There are also Discalced Byzantine Carmelites friars from Croatia, but they do not serve in parishes. They have a monastery in Sofia, its building used to be the residence of Pope John XXIII when he was Apostolic Visitator and later Delegate in Bulgaria.

Male religious - 20. I'm not sure if there are such at all. Where are these 20 male religious and who are they...

Female religous - 38. Probably true. They belong to three congragations - Discalced Byzantine Carmelite nuns (I think they where the first Discalced Byzantine Carmelites in the world), Sisters Eucharistines or Sisters of the Eucharist (this is a local Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic female religious congregation, it has also houses in Macedonia) and Oblates of the Assumption.

The number of male religious perhaps confusingly includes the number of religious priests. This means that there are 16 male religious who are priests and 4 male religious who are not priests, making a total of 20 male religious all told.

And Russian ECCs: too confusing and unimportant to include...

Neil,

As always, thank you for your comments and analysis. You add so much to our knowledge and understanding of Eastern Christianity.

Tom

I see, thanks. I wasn't sure if the number of male religious includes the religious priests. But still from what I've checked, currently there are no male religious who are not priests. The number of religious priests is really about 16 - 3 or 4 Resurrectionists, 3 Augustinians of the Assumption, 7 Salesians, 2 Discalced Carmelites.

Marylouise,

It's not a question of being too confusing or unimportant. It is, however, indicative of the long-standing neglect by Rome of the canonical status of the Russian Byzantine Church.

Since the data is reported by canonical jurisdiction, Churches which are sine episcopi, without hierarchs, are not reported. The numbers of such faithful, and their clergy, parishes, etc, are buried in the stats of the Latin jurisdictions to which they are subject.

This means that no data is reported for the Russian or the Byelorussian Churches sui iuris; the Georgian Byzantine Church sui iuris can, for all intents and purposes, be considered to be of blessed memory. Such will be the case until hierarchs are named to canonical jurisdictions belonging to those Churches.

Many years,

Neil

ag vn,

The number could also include seminarians - if any of them have seminarians in training to serve in the Byzantine Rite. It's a stretch, but if any of those orders have a house or community that serves only Byzantine parishes and the house/community includes a religious brother (and several of those orders include religious brothers among their members), any such brother(s) would be included in that count.

Keep in mind also that, albeit titled 2010, AP data is close to a year old by the time it is published; so think
in terms of the situation as it was at the end of 2009.

Many years,

Neil

I just think the statistics of some Eastern Catholic Churches or some of their jurisdictions are not really updated. In the case of the Bulgarian Byzantine Church I hope that some day they will have more male religious who are not/not yet priests and seminarians, but currently I'm not aware of such. As far as I know the last male religious who was ordained priest was a Salesian and he was ordained in July 2009.

The statistics of the Melkite Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Kuwait since 2008 state that there are no Melkite faithful, priest and parish there, but this is not true.

There is a Melkite parish there - different sources give between 1000 and 2000 faithful*, other say about 650 families**. They are organized in a parish, they have priest there - Archimandrite Boutros Gharib. There are also other Eastern Catholic groups (Maronite, Coptic, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara), but I think they are not organized in a jurisdiction and they also worship in the Roman Catholic Cathedral there, while the Melkites worship in a hired villa.



* -

UN Resident Coordinator attends Annual Dinner for the Greek Catholic Community in Kuwait [undp-kuwait.org]

More about the Melkite problems there:
** - Church in Kuwait waiting for land [thenational.ae]

Christian group stumbles to build a Church in Kuwait [alarabiya.net]

You're absolutely correct, my brother. The reporting is abysmal as evidenced by numbers that go unchanged year to year or are so obviously inflated as to be laughable.


Correct again and thank you for pointing that out. I admit that I passed by that one without noticing. Under-reported data, while less common, is just as much a disservice as the inflated data.

Many years,

Neil

Regarding the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church some statistics aren't right. Especially with the number of parishes and the number of priests. I doubt there are so many parishes and so few priests (if you compare to the number of parishes) because every parish has at least one priest.

LS,

The disparity is in the numbers for the Metropolitan Archeparchy of Fagaras & Alba Julia, which has reported 624 parishes for years now. That number, I strongly suspect, relates back to historical figures and does not account for the many closed temples and those transferred to the Orthodox Church, about which a battle has been waging for several years.

In short, I would speculate that the Archeparchy declines to acknowledge the change in its circumstances, fearing that to do so will somehow diminish its right to eventually reclaim the temples in question. None of the numbers for the other canonical jurisdictions appear to be unrealistic; minor discrepancies between the number of parishes and of clergy are to be expected through death, relocation, etc.

Many years,

Neil

Neil,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
You may be very correct on the number of parishes for the Metropolitan Archeparchy of Fagaras & Alba Julia.

But their population figures may have some accuracy:

1990 495,000
2000 362,000
2005 350,000
2009 302,000
2010 289,000

Regards,
Deacon El