The Catholic community is growing from strength to strength especially in Africa and Asia.
This is the main fact disclosed by the 2010 Church Year Book presented to Pope Benedict last Saturday at the Vatican.The Year Book processes data from 2008.
It indicates that there are more Catholics, priests and seminarians in the world, in particular in Africa and Asia.
In 2008, the number of registered baptized Catholics rose to 1.166 billion, registering an increase of 19 million in regard to the previous year.
Comparing this number with the evolution of the global population to 6.7 billion, there was a slight increase in the global percentage of Catholics.
The new yearbook was prepared by the Central Office of Church Statistics.