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Religious landscape

The European religious landscape

See an article of Pew Research Center, Eastern and Western Europeans Differ on Importance of Religion, Views of Minorities, and Key Social Issues.

Catholicism in Europe

In October 2019, numbers provided by the Fides Agency inform that the number of Catholics in the world is increasing on all continents including Europe (+ 259.000) and this after 3 consecutive (...)

In October 2019, numbers provided by the Fides Agency inform that the number of Catholics in the world is increasing on all continents including Europe (+ 259.000) and this after 3 consecutive years of decrease on this continent.
Europe gathers 22% of Catholics of the world, representing 39.74% of the population of the continent, but continues to record a steady and significant decrease in the number of priests (- 2048), of monks (- 525), and of nuns (- 7960). On the other hand, the number of lay missionaries is on the rise (+ 836).

See the information from Fides Agency.

The 2015 report of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) provides a global overview of trends in the Catholic Church (the workforce of the Church, sacraments, education, lay ministries, and welfare institutions).

CARA, Global Catholicism: Trends & Forecasts, 2015.

D 23 October 2019   

Orthodoxy in Europe

Together with Roman Catholicism and the communities that emerged from the Reformation, the Orthodox Church is one of the three major expressions of historical Christianity. It is even the main (...)

Together with Roman Catholicism and the communities that emerged from the Reformation, the Orthodox Church is one of the three major expressions of historical Christianity. It is even the main religious tradition in the east and south of the European continent, though often little known. Shaped from within the Byzantine Empire, it has, over the course of history, gradually structured itself into a variety of institutions, and today consists of a communion of fifteen autocephalous (independent) Churches of various sizes and degrees of importance.

The population of four European Union States (Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria) is predominantly Orthodox. In others (Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Baltic states), historical Orthodox minorities have a significant presence. In Western Europe, various migratory processes in the 19th and 20th centuries also resulted in significant “Orthodox diasporas”. In total, some 40 million of the Union’s 500 million inhabitants belong to this tradition. At the level of the European continent as a whole, the population of other countries (Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia) is also largely Orthodox.
Several states of Orthodox tradition have their own local or national church under the honorary presidency of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul).

For more information:
 C. CHAILLOT (dir.), L’Église orthodoxe en Europe orientale au XXe siècle, Paris, éd. du Cerf, 2009 ;
 MODEL Serge, L’Église orthodoxe en Belgique, Bruxelles, Courrier hebdomadaire du CRISP, 2018 ; "De l’Ukraine à la Belgique : quel impact de la crise institutionnelle de l’Église orthodoxe ?", BePolitix, ABSP, 11 février 2020 ;
 MAYER Jean-François, "Démographie et croyances : un rapport sur la situation des Églises orthodoxes", Religioscope, 9 novembre 2017 ;
 Statistiques de Pew forum.

D 4 February 2020    ASerge Model

Islam

See the article of Anaïd Lindemann, "Existe-t-il un islam européen ?", The Conversation, 13 May 2019.

See the article of Anaïd Lindemann, "Existe-t-il un islam européen ?", The Conversation, 13 May 2019.

D 14 May 2019   

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