By: Bernardo DiLuca

(ZENIT News / Rome, 20.07.2022).- A few days before the Pope makes an apostolic trip to Canada, the Statistical Office of the Holy See released the statistics of the Catholic Church in the country the Pope will visit.

Canada has a population of 38 million, of which 16.8 million are Catholic. This means that 44.4 out of 100 Canadians are Catholic. There are 71 dioceses and 3,881 parishes in the country. In addition to parishes, there are 557 pastoral centers serving 3,799 people per center.

In Canada, there are 134 bishops and 6,222 priests (of which 4,117 are diocesan and 2,105 are religious). There are 1,217 permanent deacons and 1,032 non-priest religious. Religious are almost 10,000: more precisely 9,620. There are 18,761 lay catechists. On average, the distribution of Catholic pastoral care per priest is 2,709 people.

Vocational Health Canada shows that there are 497 minor seminarians and 352 major seminarians across the country. This is less than 1 major seminarian (0.93) for 100,000 inhabitants and 2.09 major seminarians for 100,000 Catholics.

The Catholic Church operates 2,179 kindergartens and primary schools, 451 middle and high schools, and 45 universities in Canada. There are over half a million pupils in nursery and primary schools (516,821) and over a quarter of a million in middle and high schools (2,786, 218). In higher schools, there are only 28,074 students.

Ultimately, the Church serves 64 hospitals in Canada, 140 seniors’ residences and 54 orphanages. There are 72 Church-run family clinics and 30 special education or rehabilitation centers.