Pope Benedict XVI receives 2012 Annuario Pontificio

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday was presented the 2012 Annuario Pontificio, which is the annual yearbook of the Catholic Church.

The presentation was made by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the Substitute for General Affairs to the Secretary of State, Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

They were accompanied by Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, director of the Central Office of Church Statistics, Professor Enrico Nenna and other collaborators.

The men also presented the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae to the Pope, who expressed his gratitude to all of those who worked on the two books.

The editions give a snapshot of the Church in 2011. For example, in the last year, the Pope erected eight Episcopal Sees, one Personal Ordinariate, and one Military Ordinariate.

The statistical data is from the year 2010.

It shows just under 1.196 billion Catholics in the world, compared to 1.181 billion in 2009. The Catholic proportion of the world population has stayed fairly stable, at 17.5%.

From 2009 to 2010, the number of bishops in the world increased from 5,065 to 5,104.

The growth trend in the number of priests, which began in 2000, continued in 2010. There are now 412,236 priests (277,009 diocesan, 135,227 religious), an increase of 1,643.

The number of permanent deacons increased from 38,155 to 39,564, with over 97% of them in North America and Europe.

Globally, the number of professed religious from 2009 to 2010 fell from 729,371 to 721,935.

The number of students of philosophy and theology in diocesan and religious seminaries has steadily increased (4%) over the last five years. There were 114,439 seminarians in 2005 and 118,990 in 2010.