Religions

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."(Matthew 28:18-20)

These are the last lines in the Gospel of St. Matthew, known as "the Great Commission". They were spoken to the apostles by Jesus after His resurrection.

How successful were the twelve — and those who came after them — in spreading the Gospel to all nations? 

Numbers certainly won't tell the whole story, (the depth of a person's conversion, the extent of their personal commitment to follow Christ are the most important considerations. It is, after all, not just the number of baptized or professed Christians we are interested in) but lets look at numbers for a minute anyway.

How many people are in the world?

6 billion

How many of these 6 billion would you guess are Christian approximately?

1.9 billion.

[Since 1900 the number of Christians in the world has quadrupled, from 555 million (32.2 per cent) in 1900 to 1.9 billion in 2000 (31 per cent).]

Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Close to 1/3 of all the people on the planet profess to be Christians. Just to place this in perspective: Islam had 200 million in 1900 (12.3 per cent) and 1.2 billion (19.6) now. Today — Hinduism 811 million, Buddhism 60 million, Sikhism 23 million, and Judaism 14 million. (World Christian Encyclopedia, June 2001).

Now, how many of these "Christians" do you think are Roman Catholic?

1 billion 30 million

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians on earth. More than one out of every six people on the planet is Roman Catholic. For the first 1000 years of Christianity there was only one church, the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is by far the largest, the most widespread, and the most ancient of Christian communions in the world, and is moreover the mighty trunk from which the other communions claiming to be Christian have broken off at one time or another.

Did Christ intend or want Christianity to splinter into different denominations as it has?

"I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment." (First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 1:10)

As Catholics we assert, with St. Paul, that Christ didn't want this splitting. We believe such divisions have hurt our ability to fulfill Christ's commission to spread the Gospel message, that a house divided against itself is a weakened house, and that Our Lord would like us, once again, to become one.

Excerpted from Introduction to the Papacy by J. Frasier Field, from www.CatholicEducation.Org