The Catholic Church Becomes a Global Church II

Outline:

A.  Mid-eastern Christians amidst Israelis and militant Islam

B.  The life and efforts of Archbishop Lavigerie

C.  Modern Christian Africa:  East Africa.  Nigeria:  50% Muslim; 40% Christian .  By 2050, 500 million population; oil exporter. 

D.  Global overview:  1920 Hilaire Belloc:  The Church is Europe and Europe is the Church.

            1999 Catholic baptisms total in the world: 18 million

            8 million in Latin America

            3 million in Africa

            7 million for the whole rest of the world

     By 2025, 60% of Catholics in Africa and Latin America.

     Vatican II, one non-western cardinal; today, 40% of Cardinals from Third World

     Dominus Jesus:  “The theory of the limited, incomplete, or imperfect character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which would  be complimentary to that found in other religions, is contrary to the Church’s faith.”

      Today:

            Great Britain claims 25 million Anglicans.  One million ever step inside a church.

            44% claim no religious affiliation

            Germany:  Evangelicals claim 28 million.  One million attend.  Catholics a bit higher only.  25% claim no religious

                    affiliation.

            France:  5 million practice the Faith, 8 % of the “Catholic” population

            Italy: 5.5 million practice the Faith,  10 % of the “Catholic” population

    Tensions between North and South:  Orthodoxy & Orthopraxy; Woman’s ordination; homosexual practices; modernist theology.  Episcopal Bishop John Spong of Newark, N. J.:  “… moved out of animism into a very superstitious kind of Christianity.”  “I never expected to see the Anglican Communion, which prides itself on the place of reason in faith, descend to this level of irrational pentecostal hysteria.”

            World Wide Anglican Union:  63 million members (2.4 are Episcopalians w. 1.2 in U. S.)

E.  Bottom-line.  1.  Christianity is here to stay and grow in number.  2.  It will be more Catholic and catholic (Latin, Asian, African).  3. It will be more evangelical, more morally conservative, doctrinally orthodox and more attuned to spiritual and transcendent concerns.