Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism As World's Largest Religion
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY
Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the
Vatican newspaper
said Sunday.
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have
overtaken us,"
Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican
newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.
He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population
— a stable percentage
— while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.
"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make
a lot of children,
Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the
monsignor said.
Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put
together by Muslim
countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that
the Vatican could only
vouch for its own data.
When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up
33 percent of the
world population, Formenti said.
Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately
return phone calls seeking
comment Sunday.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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