Rome, October 17, - The
number of Catholic nuns in the world continues to dwindle, the Fides missionary
news agency said Friday, citing the December 2012 edition of the Church's
statistical annual. In 2012, it said, nuns were down by 10,677 to 702,529
worldwide with Europe
again accounting for the greatest share of the drop, 9,051. The Americas saw a fall of 4,288 and Oceania
lost 232 sisters. The only places numbers rose were, yet again, Africa (+727)
and Asia (+2,167). The Church had 362,488 lay missionaries around
the world at the end of 2012, down 19,234 on December 31, 2011, Fides said.
Rises were seen in Asia (+324) and Europe (+71), and falls in Africa (-578),
the Americas (-18,794) and Oceania (-257).