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Why Did the Cardinals Select an Argentinian Pope? These Stunning Graphics May Provide the Answer

Mar. 14, 2013 7:24am Billy Hallowell

The historic election of Pope Francis on Wednesday marked the first time that a pontifex has been selected from the Americas. The new Catholic leader, who hails from Argentina, brings into perspective the church’s stunning demographic evolution over the past century.

While the church has experienced a decline in European adherents, growth continues to abound in Africa and Latin America. National Geographic published a series of graphics and statistics that show just how stark these transitions have been, specifically between 1900 and 2010.

Catholic Church Has Had Fascinating Demographic Transition Between 1900 and 2010

Argentina’s Jorge Bergoglio, elected Pope Francis I waves from the window of St Peter’s Basilica’s balcony after being elected the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on March 13, 2013 at the Vatican. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In 1900, clearly a reflection of its historical roots, nearly seven-in-10 Catholics (67 percent) across the globe resided in Europe. At the time, France, with 40 million followers, was the largest Catholic country. As National Geographic notes, 98 percent of its population were believers at the time. Additionally, nearly all of Spain’s and Italy’s adherents were Catholics.

See the graphic showing the church’s distribution in 1900:

Photo Credit: National Geographic/Alexander Stegmail, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff

By the time 1970 rolled around, changes were already evident. Europe was still the global leader in terms of believers – but Latin America was catching up. At the time, Europe had decreased to comprising only 38 percent of the world’s Catholics (Latin America had about the same proportion of believers within its boundaries).

And according to National Geographic, the faith was already catching hold in sub-Saharan Africa as well.

The 1970 version of the map shows this continued evolution:

Photo Credit: National Geographic/Alexander Stegmail, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff

But the changes didn’t end there. By 2010, the Catholic Church in Europe was anything but robust and healthy.

Latin America became the largest region embracing the religious construct, with 41 percent of global adherents residing within its boundaries (Europe accounted for just 24 percent – down from 67 percent in 1900). Africa, too, continued to grow in its Catholic numbers.

And, finally, here’s the 2010 map:

Photo Credit: National Geographic/Alexander Stegmail, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff

It will be fascinating to see how Pope Francis contends with these changes – and whether he is successful in evangelizing Europe back into the Catholic faith.

(H/T: National Geographic)

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Comments (24)

RichardNyg
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 1:44pm
Jesus came and created one church, there is one God and one Bible. One truth. If we disagree on something one of us is wrong. Thats just the way it is.

http://www.bible.ca/cath-overview-false-teaching.htm

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Mr. H.
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 1:05pm
The Cardinals chose the best among them selves to be Pope. All that is left now, is to see what Pope Francis does during his pontificate.

All of the secular humanist nonsense discussed in the major media is in no way a consideration. The Pope is there to, among other things, uphold the teachings of The Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II commissioned an adult level book stating the teachings of The Catholic Church. The Catechism, is also called the mysterium, which means the teachings. It is a definitive statement of Catholic believes. If you want to know what the Catholic Church teaches, buy a copy of The Catechism and look it up. You cannot believe anything published in the major media about the Catholic Church.

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JEANNIEMAC
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 1:05pm
The Pope also believes in the Ten Commandments, among which are “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods”.

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- RichardNyg
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 1:47pm
  The 10 commandments were laws given to the Jews. Yes 9 of them are carried over in New Testament teaching.
  
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jman-6
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 10:34am
Most here would probably be shocked to find out the LORD doesn’t subscribe to Laissez-Faire Capitalism! If you don’t believe it read your bible and to see for yourself. That doesn’t mean HE must be for Marxism or Communism as those are GOD-less entities. Jubilee system is the fairest and most honest!

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- GoodStuff
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 12:46pm
  Are you God?
  
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Dudley Do-Right
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 9:41am
Catholic Social Teaching is based on two principles, distributism and subsidiarity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity_%28Catholicism%29

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jungle J
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 9:12am
Whites and Latins have the same interests. Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness unless they have been infected by the social justice hustle that the Catholics embrace at others expense. Todays Catholics scare me more that Jim’s baker and swaggart.

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- ChiRho4Life
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 6:12pm
  I guess you missed the part where the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic men’s association in the world, donated round about $10 million for the relief of Hurricane Katrina victims and 10s of thousands of volunteer hours to aid in the clean-up, and in excess of $1 million for the rebuilding of schools in the Phillipines, assisted the families in need after the 9-11 disaster, donated and distrubuted thousands of whelchairs to amputees in Mexico and overseas….these are but a few examples of social-justice-minded Catholics…you may want to check your facts before firing off your mouth…www.kofc.org
  
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mersey
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 9:02am
Let the man show us who he is before throwing stones. Don’t let others define him with their words. Look how the progressives define the conservatives, right wing radical extremists, just because we follow the Constitution.

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TurboPT
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:44am
Sounds like this Pope is a strong believer of “social justice”, something that Glenn has warned about in the past…

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- dnewton
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 9:45am
  Social Justice was invented by the Catholic Church over 100 years ago. It seems to be a third way between Socialism and Capitalism. Look up Pope Leo VIII. You can not have justice, social or otherwise without the truth. Any policy, conviction or condemnation would only be an action against a stereotyped group or a flawed idea that lacks perfect truth. The idea that the church or the government and the church operating together can produce “justice” defies history and it defies the Bible since the Bible teaches that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Any earthly organization would be flawed. The Bible also teaches that the creation was “subjected to futility.” Struggling against the flaws is one of our secondary purposes and it can steal time and energy to accomplish the Great Commission.
  
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- SacredHonor1776
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 10:08am
  Fascism is a third way between socialism and capitalism, like state capitalism. The state doesn’t own the means of production like under communism, but it surely calls the shots and controls the business owners.
  
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TRILO
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:42am
Maybe it is me, but shouldn’t the Pope be chosen based upon his qualifications and not how many people he brings to the pews on Sunday?

The Catholic Church has become so politically correct and worried about social justice rather than saving souls.

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- tradcatholicgirl
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:58am
  The Holy Spirit chooses the soul that will do God’s Will. We don’t know why Francis was chosen at this time or what he will do.
  
  But Francis asked for our prayers. Please pray that he has given himself over completely to the Will of God, and that he continues to do so throughout his Papacy. God will take care of the rest.
  
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SacredHonor1776
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:26am
It’s really strange, several liberal sites are either praising the new Pope for advocating Liberation theology and wealth redistribution beliefs. Some are even trying to claim liberation theology is an extreme right wing belief, this tryin to suggest he is liberal or moderate, and better than the previous extremist right wig pope. Others are trying to distance him from it like they did with Obama claiming he denounced liberation years ago. Just like Obama he claims he denounced it himself. On Wikipedia all references to his liberation theology beliefs were scrubbed yesterday.

It all is a bit strange and Ii think troubling. Obama may have himself an ally in this guy.

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- zorro
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:38am
  All this is useless analysis. Give it up media. Admit you just don’t know why they chose this guy. You weren’t there. You weren’t invited. And it’s killing you so you have to pull something out of your a**es
  
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- Dudley Do-Right
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:58am
  Pope Francis is against Liberation Theology. I think the confusion began with the media wrongly reporting he’s for it. Here’s an example from the Guardian
  
  • This article was amended on 14 March 2013. It wrongly described Bergoglio as a champion of liberation theology and referred to the government of Ernesto Kirchner when it should have read Néstor Kirchner. Both errors have been corrected.
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/13/jorge-mario-bergoglio-pope-poverty
  
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- SacredHonor1776
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 10:07am
  Ya, its all a bit confusing. Some articles are saying that he was actually part of the “Communion and Liberation” organization which was more of an ‘conservative’ (conservative for Argentina) that was more of anti-liberation theology. But at the same time some articles bring up that he stood up for and defended two priests who were Liberation theology advocates who were imprisoned and helped free them (this of course could just mean he is for equal justice, and free speech).
  
  Newsmax seems to think that he leans more left than most catholics. That he has privately showed sympathy for some aspects of liberation theology, but was not open about it. Even the Blaze suggests that he has some sympathy with for the inequal wealth distribution (which raises questions). But it points out that he is probably more dogmatic as far as Catholic traditions in line with the previous Pope.
  http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/Jorge-Bergoglio-LIGNET-Pope/2013/03/13/id/494557
  
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tradcatholicgirl
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:00am
I don’t think he can evangelize Europe in any way.

The Europeans have stopped procreating. They are reproducing at less than a replacement rate for quite a while now. Whoever replaces them in the next generation will be immigrants. Those immigrants will come with their own faiths and their own customs.

Some may be Catholic, and some other Christian denominations.

The only two European countries that are essentially still Catholic are Poland and Italy. But Italy has not been reproducing Italians at near replacement rate for decades.

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- oldguy49
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:20am
  sorry but according to the stats I saw recently MUSLIMS will soon own europe
  
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- tradcatholicgirl
  Posted on March 14, 2013 at 8:27am
  OldGuy,
  
  That is exactly what I said.
  
  Europeans are NOT procreating, and those that replacing them are immigrants. I decided not to mention that most of those immigrants seem to be Islamic from North Africa and elsewhere.
  
  Google “DEMOGRAPHIC WINTER” if you all want to know more about what OldGuy and I are talking about. Watch it.
  
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- Yakov-Yurovsky
  Posted on March 15, 2013 at 7:25am
  “sorry but according to the stats I saw recently MUSLIMS will soon own europe.”
  
  Well, with the fall of the christian monarchs of Europe, the Stalins, Hitlerites and Churchills inherited the thrones of Europe! As we know, these were some pretty efficient killing machines. The Muslims don’t stand a chance! lol
  
  Have sum faith in our people’s ability to control their own destiny. It will all come out in the wash!
  
  Report this comment
jackact
Posted on March 14, 2013 at 7:56am
To hear comments like, “They should have selected a black pope” or “The new pope is still Italian, just living in Argentina” shows that America us still severely suffering from the dreaded TOLERANCE disease. When tolerance is used as a political tool you end up settling for Obama, who was primarily elected simply because it made us ‘feel good’ about having a black president. Well, what are the chances of that happening again?

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