There's a major global shift happening in the Catholic Church

Amid seemingly endless reports of the decline of the Church, it's encouraging to see a study released yesterday showing that the number of Catholics around the world increased by 57 per cent between 1980 and 2012.

Unfortunately, it's not all good news. The research, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostate (CARA) at Georgetown University, Washington DC, shows an increase in the number of Catholics, but a decline in the number of priests, and in the number of Catholics receiving the sacraments in certain parts of the world.

"The Church is undergoing a transformation and realigning," Dr Mark Gray, director of CARA Catholic Polls, who co-authored the report, told Christian Today. "There are places where the Church is growing, and growing strongly, and there are not enough parishes and lots of priests, and then there are places where the population is waning and there are lots of parishes and too few priests." Keep reading

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