Pope Benedict and the evangelicals

Although Benedict XVI has made ecumenical overtures in more than one direction, going so far as to propose a joint synod of Greek (i.e., Orthodox) and Latin bishops during his visit to Bari, Italy, journalist Paolo Pontoniere believes that the new Pope may be preparing a strategy to combat the growing worldwide influence of evangelicals. Pontoniere cites some startling statistics:

According to some researchers, evangelical Christianity is expanding three times faster than the world population and is the only existing religious group showing a significant growth through conversion. By contrast, the Roman Catholic Church is expanding at a slower pace than the population, which will mean an overall decrease in the number of Catholics worldwide.

In addition, the dissolution of the Berlin Wall not only reinvigorated the Orthodox church, but also saw huge numbers of believers from the former Socialist bloc — where the church had been persecuted — move into evangelical groups.

There are currently more evangelicals in Asia than in North America. Singapore's churches are among the most active in the world, sending one missionary abroad per every 1,000 members. Seven of the world's 10 largest evangelical churches can be found in Seoul alone, a city where 110 years ago there was none.

In Latin America, a mostly Catholic region for the past 500 years, the number of evangelicals has grown from under 250,000 in 1900 to over 60 million in 2000. Critics of the Vatican say the vacuum left by Pope John Paul II's disavowal of the "basic Christian communities" movement has been filled by the evangelicals.

In 1960, the number of evangelicals living in the developing countries were one-half of those in the West; in the year 2000, they were four times more, and in 2010 they will be seven times as numerous.

In America, where even Protestant groups have lost 5.4 million members over the last decade, evangelicals have enjoyed a growth rate of 40 percent. They have become the largest religious force in the United States, with 26 percent of all — and they wield undeniable political clout.

Of course, the validity of such statistics depends on how one defines an evangelical, some definitions of which are so broad as to encompass devout Roman Catholics and Orthodox, in addition to those believers populating the various pentecostal, baptistic and free churches often thought to constitute the nucleus of the movement.

What about the so-called protestant mainline, such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Canada, and similar historic denominations? For the most part they are declining in numbers, with small, ageing congregations worshipping in large and increasingly difficult to maintain buildings. However, there are pockets of vitality, especially amongst the more confessional or evangelical congregations, but not exclusively, as indicated in this US News & World Report article: "Religion in America: Pumping life into mainline Protestantism." Still, given that such bodies as a whole are losing numbers, the Vatican will decreasingly perceive them to be a threat to the Catholic faithful. If Pontoniere is correct, the future of global Christianity would seem to lie with these ill-defined evangelicals — whoever they are.