Islam outstripped Catholicism
and became the world's largest religion
Islam "ahead of the Roman Catholic Church and became the largest single religious faiths in the world, argues the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
In an interview with Monsignor Vittorio Formenty, the originator of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican yearbook, said: "For the first time in history we are no longer ahead: Muslims overtook us."
According to him, the statistics of 2006 shows that Catholics make up 17.4% of the world's population, while Muslims - 19.2%.
When asked to clarify the situation Bishop Formenty said: "While the Muslim families, as we know, there are still many children, Christian family, in contrast, tend to have fewer and fewer children." According to him, the total number of Muslims in the world were withdrawn on the basis of data submitted to the UN Muslim countries.
But Christians in general, including Catholics, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant, make up 33% of the world's population. According Formenty, "stronghold" of Catholicism remains Latin America, on the American continent in general, home to almost half the total number of Christians. He noted that the number of Catholic priests is declining, and said that the number of monks has also experienced a "drastic reduction".
New data made public on the background of support and the Vatican and Muslim leaders recently initiated by Muslim-Catholic dialogue, in spite of the tension over the baptism of Pope Benedict XVI Magdi Allam - Italian Muslim journalist accepting Catholicism. Father Frederico Lombardi, the Vatican press secretary, said that the position of Allama who loudly criticizes Islam as a religion, are naturally associated with violence and suppression, in no way are the "official expression of the position of Pope or the Holy Prince."
According to the Vatican, the world's 1.13 billion Catholics live, and the number of Muslims is 1.3 billion
The largest mosque is in the European Rome. It was opened in 1995 and built on the money of Muslim countries, mainly Saudi Arabia, which is
currently prohibited profess Christianity. However, it is reported that the country is considering the possibility of building a church on their territory in the framework of negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations.
In a provocative story titled "Last Christmas" (L'Ultimo Natale), a popular Italian writer Valerio Massimo Manfredi paints a future in which Islam became the dominant religion in Italy. Papa forced to leave the Cathedral of St. Peter and give way to the Imam.
Topic: CONGRATULATIONS !!! ISLAM IS THE WORLD'S LARGEST RELIGION !!! MAKE STICKY !!! (Read 1280 times)