www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Eastern Catholic Stats - 2008 AP

Father Ron Robeson has posted the 2008 AP stats on the Eastern & Oriental Catholic Churches to the CNEWA website, as he does annually, and this year has included a pie chart.

See the stats here [cnewa.org]

See the pie chart here [cnewa.org]

As yet, Father has not updated his text, last rewritten in Fall, 2007, and overdue for its annual overhaul.

Usually, I post a link to these, but don't get into analyzing them, leaving that to others. However, this time I went through them with a rather fine-toothed comb and drafted some detailed comments. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not doing so in Word and then c&p'ing - my browser crashed as I was submitting the post and all is lost. Ah well, live and learn.

But, I'll offer a few thoughts that stick in my mind. The majority of Churches showed some increase in numbers of faithful. A few appear legitimate, more seem inflated or not readily explained. The decreases looked much more likely to be accurate.

Any number of jurisdictions report no changes whatsoever in the numbers of faithful. Either they are not enumerating annually or not reporting and, in the latter instance, AP is merely reprinting the prior year's data. A useless exercise in either case.

A footnote in Father Robeson's table reports that the AP is now listing the Apostolic Exarchate for the Macedonians separately from the Eparchy of Kriveci and the Exarchate for the Serbians and Montenegrons, which are together denoted as "Byzantine Catholics of the Eparchy of Kriveci". We may be witnessing the birthing of a Byzantine Macedonian Catholic Church sui iuris - the first new such church in almost a century. The Croats, overall, had no significant changes; the Macedonians, however, did report increases in the number of faithful.

The Metropolitan Archeparchy of Philadelphia reported a decrease of 43,000 faithful. The other two changes of major note among the UGCC jurisdictions were a 28,000 decease in the German/Scandinavian Exarchate and a 142,000 increase for the Major Archeparchy of Kyiv-Halych - taking the latter to within 60,000 of the 300,000 that it claimed back in 2000. Such a change is suspect, however, without any indication as to a reason why such might be likely.

The Chaldeans report a 16,000 increase in faithful for the Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Detroit. That is likely attributable to immigration. More suspect are reports of significant increases in numbers for several jurisdictions in Iraq, where decreases would be expected.

The Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Chicago shows a decrease of 15,000 faithful. As there would be no ready explanation for such a change, it likely reflects better record-keeping.

A major increase for the Melkites - 250,000 net - is chiefly attributable to the relatively new (erected 2002) Argentinean Exarchate, which is reporting for the first time and indicates it has 300,000 faithful. Those persons would previously have been subject to the Argentinean Ordinariate and it - like all its counterparts - is a less than accurate source of data. So, the numbers may be valid.

An overall Maronite decrease is not readily explained on review of the data. Emigration in the face of Middle East tensions is an expected reason for lower numbers in two Lebanese jurisdictions, but the immigrants had to go somewhere. Since there are not corresponding increases in jurisdictions in the diaspora, I suspect that the latter have failed to yet account for those whom they have absorbed from the homeland.

The Copts increase is only 2.500, but it is almost entirely attributable to a single eparchy, and represents an almost 50% increase there. That seems unlikely.

The Armenians reported a 400% increase in 2007 for the number of faithful in their Egyptian jurisdiction. This year that number has been reduced to 1/6th of the number that had been reported prior to 2007. This, I suspect, reflects the true picture. On the other hand, they report an increase of 170,000 faithful in their Eastern European Ordinariate. That seems doubtful. They continue to report no numbers for their Archeparchy in Lviv, which I believe reflects the reality that the Archeparchy is unserved, which I've seen reported elsewhere.

Ethiopian losses of 15,000 faithful are almost entirely attributable to two of their Eritrean jurisdictions and almost assuredly reflect emigration due to the political, military, and economic instability there. As we know, the absence of any canonical jurisdiction for them in the diaspora makes them subject to Latin hierarchs and makes it nearly impossible to document any reliable figures as to their numbers. However, in working on the EC Directory, I was able to identify close to two dozen communities in the US and Canada; regretably, the vast majority were not being pastorally served and it is almost a certainty that significant numbers will ultimately translate to the counterpart Tewahedo Orthodox Church.

The Syro-Malankara are undercounted in these numbers given their significant US presence. They, too, defy a ready census, given the lack of a canonical structure (despite numbers of temples and faithful that certainly justify at least an exarchate). They are, however, generally well-served pastorally.

The Syriacs report a 30,000 increase, essentially all of which is attributable to a single jurisdiction in Syria. Even allowing for some of their faithful to be fleeing unrest in Iraq and Lebanon, that number is diffiult to reconcile. The absence of any complementary decreases in Syriac faithful in jurisdictions of those two nations makes the figure suspect.

The Ruthenians only change of note is a 54,000 increase in faithful in the Eparchy of Mukacevo. Unless someone can offer a good suggestion as to why that might be the case, I consider it a dubious change in a one year period.

The Romanians had a substantial drop in the numbers reported for the Metropolitan Archeparchy, but a nearly corresponding increase in the Eparchy of Maramures. I didn't check to see if there were changes in territory that might have shifted some of the population from one to the other; if not, the increase, at least, would be suspect in my mind.

The Greeks and Hungarians reported no changes.

The Slovaks reported an increase in the Kosice Exarchate.

The Bulgarians and Albanians reported minor changes in numbers.

The Italo-Greico-Albanians reported a decrease of approximately 2,500, attributed to the Sicilian Eparchy.

As usual, data is not available for the Russian and Belarusian Churches.

The Ordinriates, as is generally the case, reported no changes and making the validity of their numbers suspect. The Polish Ordinariate, as is always the case, reported no numbers. Notably absent from the list of Ordinariates is any mention of the Russian one which it was said that Bishop Wertb would be heading, but which was never announced as erected.

Finally, I think we can realistically conclude at this point that the Byzantine Georgian Catholic Church is extinct as a sui iuris entity - Memory eternal.

Many years,

Neil

It is interesting that no Russian Ordinariate is listed in the Annuario Pontificio.

You will find Bishop Joseph Werth SJ described as "Ordinario per i fedeli di rito bizantino residenti in Russia" ("Ordinary for the faithful of the Byzantine rite residing in Russia") if you look at the entry for the Diocese of the Transfiguration at Novosibirsk ("Trasfigurazione a Novosibirsk," Annuario Pontificio, 2006, p. 755).

This is also how Bishop Werth was described by the Holy See Press Office daily bulletin [212.77.1.245] of January 26, 2009, when it was reported that the Holy Father had received the four Russian Catholic bishops on their visit "ad limina Apostolorum":


Clearly, then, the appointment is official, and Bishop Werth is indeed the Ordinary for Byzantine-rite Catholics living in Russia. The absence of a separate entry for the Ordinariate in the Annuario Pontificio and the lack of a public announcement probably shows that the Vatican wants to avoid provoking a negative response from the Russian Orthodox Church.

I would like to add to Irish Melkite's detailed analysis the following comments:

1) If the figures for the Melkite Church are true, then it means that the Melkites have 500,000+ more faithful than the Antiochian Orthodox have. The AP 2008 stats credits the Melkites with 1.5+ million faithful compared to the 1,000,000 conventionally credited to the Antiochian Orthodox.

Personally, what makes me quite suspicious of the current Melkite statistics are the following facts:

a) In the book "Oriente Cattolico: Cenni storici e statistiche", published in Rome in 1962 and whose statistics are widely reflected in Catholic reference works from the 1960's, the Melkites are counted as 397,611 compared to 605,000 Antiochian Orthodox (called "Melkite Dissidents" in the 1962 statistics).

If current (2008) figures are true, then it would mean that the Melkites have increased by nearly fourfold in only 47 years while the Antiochian Orthodox have had relative stagnation all that time. Given the situation of the Christian East today, this is unbelievable.

For one thing, the population of Christians in the Middle East is decreasing, not increasing, due to massive immigration and increased persecution; and if growth outside the homeland is to be discussed, it is the Antiochian Orthodox who clearly have had more growth than the Melkite Catholics.

Furthermore, conventional statistics for Syria credit it as being consistently 10% Christian, of whom the largest group is Antiochian Orthodox, with the Syriac Orthodox forming the second largest group. (Syria currently has about 19 million people).

b) As for Lebanon, Lebanon's population can scarcely support the large numbers of Melkites credited to Lebanon (a whopping 390,000 for 2008), since if the Melkite and Maronite populations as reported in AP 2008 are assumed to be true, then almost all the Christians in Lebanon would be Catholic -- which isn't true. Although exact statistics are lacking, Lebanon's population is not more than 40% Christian right now -- divided among all major Christian Churches claiming the apostolic succession, plus not a few Protestants -- and is probably much less, and that country's total population is only about 4 million.

2) Speaking of Maronites, I also feel incredulous when faced by AP 2008's claims that there are far more Maronites in Argentina and Brazil combined (some 1.1 million of the more than 3 million Maronites claimed) than in Lebanon itself (927,341). Besides, the 1962 statistics published in Rome counted 850,000 Maronites in total throughout the world, at a time when Christians were about 50% of Lebanon's population and Maronites were clearly dominant. While population growth could indeed account for rapid growth on the part of the Maronites, I am suspicious as to why this statistical growth seems to have occured almost entirely outside of Lebanon.

Anyway, for comparison' sake, the following are the 1962 statistics for Eastern Catholics as reported by Oriente Cattolico: Cenni storici e statistiche. I currently have these statistics as published in the "The Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home" copyright by St. Joseph's Seminary and College, Dunwoodie, NY and published by Grolier's in 1965. (Look for the article on Eastern Catholics).

ALEXANDRIAN:

Coptic: 82,894
Ethiopian: 59,215

ANTIOCHEAN:

Malankar: 124,433
Maronite: 850,000
Syrian: 80,000

BYZANTINE:

Albanian: 400
Bulgarian: 9,480
Georgian: 10,000
Greek: 2,872
Hungarian: 250,000
Italo-Albanian: 70,000
Melkite: 397,611
Romanian: 1,572,979
Russian: 3,000
Ruthenian: 778,555
Slovak: 305,645
Ukrainian: 4,340,000
White Russian: 35,000
Yugoslavian: 56,000

CHALDEAN:

Chaldean: 190,000
Malabar: 1,349,360

ARMENIAN:

Armenian: 97,000

Mind you, I think the Roman Catholic Church also has a lot of extremely inflated statistics. No less than one of my country's most distinguished retired archbishops once told me that some bishops do inflate figures in order to look good with Rome.

However, while "statistics" may often be considered as a form of lies, I think that a careful reading of various statistics could still yield much of the truth.

I'm curious why the overall numbers for the UGCC went down so much. The numbers for the Ukrainians and Ruthenians in North America are downright scary if accurate.

I love White Russians!
Stephanos I

Wow...an average of about 350 parishioners for each parish in the BC Eparchy of Parma. We have many more people than I thought.

20 of our 35 parishes are in the Cleveland area...they must be carrying the bulk of the numbers.

According to Neil's pie chart, nearly 50% of the Eastern Catholic presence is non-Byzantine, mostly Eastern and Western Syriacs. I wonder how many bishops, priests, and laity have visited each other's temples and prayed together?

Why do we not have one or more Sundays of Divine Liturgy where all are gathered together, including the Latins? I've seen the Eastern Orthodox gather annually for their Sunday of Holy Orthodoxy; I've also seen the Oriental Orthodox gather for joint Divine Liturgies; I've yet to see the Eastern Catholics join together with other Eastern Catholics for anything (I have seen the local Latin ordinary or his representative invited).

Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know that we had one parish with that many parishioners let alone that being the average. Amazing!

Keep looking - annually the local Ruthenian and Melkite parish pray together for a weekend with vespers and DL...

But are you asking about a pan-Eastern Catholic synaxis covering all Eastern Catholic groups, Byzantine, Oriental, Syriac, etc?

Our population has swiftly aged, with later generations being successively less likely to self-identify as ethnic (in the same fashion as their forebearers would have) as well as decreased likelihood they would be members of ethnic parishes.

This is an across the board phenomena.

Across the board? Looking at the Ruthenian numbers about 100,000 people fewer were counted in 2008 and 1990. That's basically a 60% drop in less than 20 years. I would have trouble believing that's happening across the board. It does look like the Ukrainians lost 100,000 as well though.

I am still puzzled as to how the UGCC as a whole went down nearly a million.

A pan-Eastern or even a pan-Catholic Liturgy would be a wonderful event, especially in cities with multiple Eastern parishes.

Bless you, Michael, my friend - it's Father Robeson's pie chart, not mine. I just watch CNEWA annually around this time, in hopes of catching his new presentations of the data.

I agree with your observation that there is not a lot of liturgical participation that crosses the EC - OC bounds, other than that between the Melkites and Maronites on occasion, as well as between the Syriacs and Melkites. It seems to me that Dan previously described joint activities between the Ruthenians and Chaldeans in the Chicago area. I also think that I recently read somewhere of some exchange between the Byzantines and Chaldeans in California.

The last instance that I personally remember was at the enthronement of Archbishop Cyril. The Armenian, Syriac, and both Maronite Eparchs were present and concelebrated with their counterparts from the four Byzantine eparchies. Neither the Chaldeans nor Syro-Malabars were represented, and I don't remember whether they were invited. It was a definite oversight if the Chaldeans were not, since Sayednah Cyril had been involved in the Catholic-Assyrian dialogues. (However, no one intimately involved at the Melkite Chancery at the time had prior experience in arranging that type of liturgical event and that could account for it.) The Malankara Apostolic Visitor was newly appointed at the time and I doubt he was invited - not certain if he was even in the US at the time.

Many years,

Neil

Remember, though, that any such Liturgy, of necessity, must be celebrated according to one or the other Rite - it can't be a mix and match. At the time of Archbishop Cyril's enthronement, His Beatitude Gregorios pointedly asked Father Eugene and me about whether the Armenian and Syriac Eparchs would be comfortable concelebrating in the Byzantine Rite.

I reminded His Beatitude that, as an archbishop accompanying Patriarch Maximos V of blessed memory on US visits, he had been present at several such concelebrations in our Cathedral. It was always my impression that Archbishop Joseph (Tawil), of blessed memory, very much enjoyed having representation of as many Churches as possible at major liturgical celebrations.

Many years,

Neil

I'm very much in agreement with Michael Thoma