We have entered the holy season of Lent, and we usually see Catholics at church more than any time of the year. Let us take a look at present-day Catholicism.

When determining the world’s largest Catholic countries, we generally focus on overall population size, i.e, the number of baptized Catholics in those places. By that standard, here is the current Top Ten list:

1. Brazil (120 million)

2. Mexico (90 million)

3. Philippines (80 million)

4. USA (67 million)

5. Italy (47 million)

6. Democratic Republic of Congo (45 million)

7. Colombia (35 million)

8. Poland (33 million)

9. Nigeria (32.4 million)

10. France (32 million)

However, what if we change the focus to “practicing” Catholics, meaning those who go to Mass at least once a week? The World Values Survey recently published data on Mass attendance rates from around the world, which created the following Top Ten list:

1. Philippines (47 million)

2. Mexico (45 million)

3. Democratic Republic of Congo (37.5 million)

4. Nigeria (30.5 million)

5. Uganda (28.4 million)

6. Colombia (20.5 million)

7. Poland (17.2 million)

8. Tanzania (17.1 million)

9. Angola (16.7 million)

10. Italy (13.6 million)

This picture looks different. Overall, there are five sub-Saharan Africa nations in the Top Ten. Brazil disappears altogether, with a Mass attendance rate of only 8%, as does the United States, where a 17% Mass attendance rate translates into 11.4 million practicing Catholics. Looking at that list, one could conclude that Catholicism today is largely an African enterprise. This trends in both population growth and Mass attendance; this African influence will only increase in the next century.

Recently, the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, which includes Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Benin, Mali, Togo, Ghana, and six other nations, held a press conference to present the results of its synodal deliberations. “The people insisted that there is a need for the Church to redefine her values, and this redefinition of values in a changing world should be based on the word of God and the living tradition of the Church and not on feelings and sentiments,” said Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi, Secretary General of the Conference.

Noting that the Vatican-issued “Document for the Continental Stage” of the synod features the image of the church as a “big tent” (Isaiah 54:2 - “enlarge the space of your tent”), Anaehobi said that Catholics in West Africa prefer another scriptural image – John 14 (“in my Father’s house there are many mansions”). “When we say the central idea is inclusiveness, they prefer a house where there are rules and principles and not just a tent where anybody can just come in,” he said.

While right and wrong aren’t determined by headcounts, it’s still an arresting exercise to compare the numbers of practicing Catholics in two notable Catholic nations. In Germany, there are 22.1 million Catholics with a 14% weekly Mass attendance rate or 3.1 million practicing Catholics. As we’ve already seen, Nigeria has ten times that total at 30.5 million.

(Source: John L. Allen/Cruxnow)

Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. His father, a police officer, came from a traditional family of farmers from Lower Bavaria. He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, a small town on the Austrian border.

Joseph's youth was far from easy. His faith and family upbringing prepared him for the harsh experience of the problems connected with the Nazi regime; he even remembered seeing his parish priest being beaten by Nazis before celebrating Mass and was well aware of the fiercely hostile atmosphere to the Church that existed in Germany at the time. Toward the end of World War II, Joseph enrolled in the auxiliary anti‐aircraft service.

From 1946 to 1951, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and Freising. Together with his brother Georg, Joseph was ordained a priest on June 29, 1951, in the Cathedral at Freising. In 1953, Fr. Ratzinger obtained a doctorate in theology.

Four years later, he qualified as a university professor. He then taught dogma and fundamental theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology of Freising and other locations until 1969. In 1969, he was a professor at the University of Regensburg, where he eventually became Dean and Vice‐Rector. From 1962 to 1965, he was present during all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as a chief theological advisor to the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Josef Frings.

Fr. Ratzinger's experience as a priest and "expert" at the Second Vatican Council was immensely valuable and fundamental to his life. He lived out this experience as confirmation of his own vocation, which he defined as "theological." He wrote a rapid succession of detailed publications which serve as a reference point for Catholics and those involved in advanced theological studies.

In March 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Munich and Freising. He was ordained a Bishop that same year and was the first diocesan priest in 80 years to take on the pastoral governance of this large Bavarian Diocese. He chose as his episcopal motto: "Fellow Worker in the Truth" (cf. III Jn 1: 8).

He was proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Paul VI in June 1977, and in November 1981, he was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He also became President of the Biblical Commission and of the Pontifical International Theological Commission. His six‐year role as President of the Commission for Drafting the Catechism of the Catholic Church is one of his many outstanding achievements.

In November 2002, the Holy Father approved his election, by the order of Cardinal Bishops, as Dean of the College of Cardinals. Until his election to the Chair of Peter, Cardinal Ratzinger was a Member of the Council of the Second Section of the Secretariat of State; of the Congregations: for the Oriental Churches, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Catholic Education; of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

As Dean of the College of Cardinals, he presided over the College's deliberations during the Vacancy of the Holy See following the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005. On Friday, April 8, Cardinal Ratzinger presided at Holy Mass in St Peter's Square for the funeral of Pope John Paul II. On Tuesday, April 19, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the 265th Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, selecting the name Benedict XVI.

Seventy‐one years of homilies, innumerable essays, 66 books, three Encyclicals, and four Exhortations, all boiled down to the four last words at the hour of his death: “I LOVE YOU, JESUS.” He died December 31, 2022.