Australia’s Catholic Population Drops 2.7% in Five Years
Thomas D. Williams Ph.D. 7 Apr 2019 Breitbart News
The number of Catholics in Australia fell by a significant 2.7 percent between 2011 and 2016, the National Center for Pastoral Research reported last week.
Analyzing national census data from the most recent available year (2016), the center
reported that the Catholic population had dropped from 5.4 million in 2011 to some 5.3 million in 2016 in its “Social Profile of the Catholic Community in Australia.” . . .
. . . “The drop in the number of Catholics is concerning and the bishops are keen to understand what’s behind it and respond as positively as possible,” said Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian bishops’ conference.
Archbishop Coleridge said that the decline in affiliation with the Catholic Church has been compounded by a drop in religious practice among Catholics, and speculated that government investigations and “related revelations about child sexual abuse as well as a general drift away from religious practice and a broader trend of disaffiliation” have affected Australia’s Catholic population… . .
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