Numbers of Catholics ‘could be larger than reported’

Austria’s church-owned Kath­press news agency has questioned Vatican data in the run-up to the Pope’s late November visit to Turkey, and said the country could be home to many more Catholics than official figures suggest, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“Compared to a century ago, when Christian churches blossomed throughout the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s Catholic Church today is only a pale reflection of what it once was,” the Catholic agency said. “But there are many Catholic immigrants from neighbouring countries, and … many families have remained faithful to the Catholic faith across generations, even without expressing it outwardly.”

The agency was commenting on figures published last week by the Vatican’s statistics office, which put membership of Turkey’s seven Catholic dioceses and apostolic vicariates at just 53,000, spread over 54 parishes and 13 pastoral centres. It said research by the Vienna-based Pro Oriente foundation had spoken of “crowded Catholic churches” in provincial Turkish towns from Izmir to eastern Anatolia.

Pope Francis is to be hosted by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul on the 30 November Feast of St Andrew the Apostle.