7,000 percent growth!
Is it a hedge fund? A biotech startup? A promising new source of energy? No. It's the Catholic Church in Africa. In 1900, there were 1.9 million Catholics in Africa. By the year 2000, the number had risen to 130 million. A growth rate of almost 7,000 percent. And the expansion continues. For us in the West, is hard to believe that the day is coming when the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris will exist solely as a tourist attraction while some great structure in Abuja or Lagos will be a centre for pilgrims and attract thinkers as did Leuven during the Counter Reformation.
But it might well be that the great centres of Catholic thinking in the future will be found in Beijing or Shanghai. Now that the Chinese Communists have agreed to recognize the rights of property owners, freedom of religion cannot be far behind. Once this day comes, China will turn into the planet's final missionary frontier, and as we have seen in other parts of the world, the horror that is communism always leaves a huge spiritual hunger in its wake. Apart from some remnants of Confucianism, there is no major religious tradition in China to compare with what Christianity or Islam can offer one billion people so we can expect a robust free market of beliefs. Given that China is set to become a global power, its political outlook will inevitably change if its society includes a significant religious component.
Expect more record growth figures out of China in the coming years. But it won't be all economic data.
