Journalist: Religious freedom, Islam greatest challenges church faces

Journalist: Religious freedom, Islam greatest challenges church facesNovember 14th, 2012
By Valerie Schmalz

(Photo by Valerie Schmalz/Catholic San Francisco)

‘We are witnessing the rise of an entire new generation of Christian martyrs.’ – John Allen

Engaging Islam and weathering challenges to religious freedom are perhaps the two greatest challenges for the Catholic Church in the 21st century – a church which is also in a ferment of missionary activity and experiencing dramatic growth worldwide, says veteran church observer John Allen.

In just one century the Catholic Church grew from 266 million to 1.1 billion Catholics, shifting demographically from a mostly white, European church to one dominated demographically by Catholics in Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Latin America. entire artilce: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=22&id=60718