(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 09.09.2022).- From September 13-15, Pope Francis will visit Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia, in the context of the Congress of Leaders of the World and Traditional Religions. Planned also are meetings with the local Catholic community. What does the Catholic Church have in Kazakhstan? Following are the numbers.
Kazakhstan has a population of 18 .9 million inhabitants, 125,000 of whom are Catholics. There are five dioceses, 81 parishes, and 146 Pastoral Centers in the country, each Center attending an average of 550 Catholics.
Up to December 31, 2021, Kazakhstan had six Bishops, 78 diocesan priests, 26 priests Religious, one Permanent Deacon, five men Religious (not priests), 133 professed women, religious, 18 lay missionaries and 50 catechists.
Cathedral Of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help In Nur-Sultan, Capital Of The Country. Photo: AsiaNews
There is an average of 1,198 Catholics per priest.
In regard to vocations, there are two Minor and seven Major Seminarians (that is, 5.6 Major Seminarians for every 100,000 Catholics or 6.73 seminarians for every 100 priests).
In Kazakhstan, the Catholic Church has 35 nursery and/or primary schools, 150 lower and secondary schools and seven Universities.
In its charity work, the Church runs two residences for the elderly, three orphanages, two family and two outpatients clinics, and 33 other institutions of charitable services.
The majority of the population is Muslim.
