Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Shi Jia Zhuang (Agenzia Fides) - The latest statistics from the Catholic Church in mainland China written by the Faith Institute for Cultural Studies (FICS), dated December 8, 2009 report that the number of Catholics in the country was at nearly 6 million, pastoral care numbers at 3,397 counting Bishops, priests, and deacons. Among them are 3,268 active priests in a hundred dioceses. There are also 628 major seminarians studying in 18 seminars, 630 minor seminarians in the 30 preparatory or minors seminaries. There are 5,451 sisters with vows divided into 106 religious congregations.
The Catholic community on the mainland manages 381 charitable structures (excluding the Centers for Lepers). These include 220 clinics, 11 hospitals, 81 homes for the elderly, 44 kindergartens, a higher-learning center, 2 vocational training institutes, 22 orphanages and centers for disabled children, 3 Rehabilitation Centers, 34 centers for social services. Some 80 religious sisters are working in twenty government structures for lepers.
According to Li Ma Li, from the Faith Institute for Cultural Studies, who was involved in compiling statistics, "our information has been gathered by the priests in charge, on a diocesan or local level, according to participation in church activities and the number of people receiving the sacraments regularly. The work of gathering the information was done through e-mail, phone calls, faxes, and sometimes going to the place where they do not have these possibilities. So, we can say that the statistics are fairly accurate, especially as regards the number of major seminarians and seminaries and social structures of the dioceses. Obviously there are still some communities living in particular situations, therefore it is difficult to have completely precise statistics. For example, several parishes, dioceses or cities, have not kept count or could not do any recording for years, so it has been quite an effort." (NZ) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2009)
