The LifeSiteNews website, on January 9, 2026, reported on and commented on the statistics of the Catholic Church published by the Roman agency Fides, based on data from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church published at the end of 2025 and covering the year 2023.
It is clear that the number of Catholic priests and seminarians decreased worldwide during 2023.
The total number of priests worldwide decreased by 734 between 2022 and 2023, despite a 16 million person increase in the number of Catholics.
The number of seminarians also decreased by 1,986 during this period, "thus affirming that the longstanding Church crisis has been continuing at least until recently," notes LifeSiteNews.
In 2023, when there were a total of 406,996 Catholic priests, the global decline in the Catholic clergy was observed on all continents except Africa and Asia, the only regions to record increases in the number of priests: 1,451 and 1,145 respectively.
However, even in Asia, the number of seminarians decreased by 1,331 in 2023. The previous year, the number of seminarians had decreased by only 375.
In Africa, the number of seminarians increased by 383 in 2023, a significantly smaller increase than the previous year: 726. In 2023, Africans represented nearly a third of the world's seminarians.
Incidentally, LifeSiteNews notes the situation of the Society of Saint Pius X, which, as of November 1, 2025, has 733 priests, and observes that "the largest society of traditionalist priests has experienced steady growth in its number of its priests since its founding in 1970."
It should be noted that the number of religious sisters worldwide continues to decrease significantly despite the increase in the number of Catholics, with a decrease of 9,805 sisters in 2023, for a total of 589,423 sisters that year.
Africa and Asia are once again exceptions, with a slight increase in Asia (+46 sisters) and a more significant increase in Africa (+1,804).
At the same time, the number of permanent deacons continues to increase worldwide, with a rise of 1,234 deacons in 2023.
According to Fides, the number of these deacons remains stable in Europe while it is increasing in the Americas.
“In the U.S. in particular, the number of priests flatlined in 1965, after the Second Vatican Council, and then began to plummet around 1985 as the Catholic population continued to explode. This suggests significant harm to vocations was inflicted by the changes to the liturgy and teaching of the faith initiated by the Council.”
In support of this cause-and-effect relationship, LifeSiteNews cites a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, published in July 2025, which finds that Vatican II "triggered a decline" in attendance at Catholic Masses worldwide, compared to attendance at religious services of other religions, including Protestantism.
This study explicitly states: "Compared to other countries, Catholic countries experienced a steady decline in the monthly adult religious service attendance rate starting immediately after Vatican II” in 1965, the last year of the council.
LifeSiteNews believes that "the vocational crisis seems to have significantly worsened during the pontificate of Francis.
According to Catholic World News, after 1978, the number of seminarians peaked at 120,616 in 2011, and slightly declined to 120,051 in 2012.”
At the end of 2013, after the election of Francis, there were 118,251, a decrease of 1,800 in one year.
The report notes that “by 2023, data showed an 'uninterrupted' decline in the number of seminarians starting in 2013."