Election of first pope from Western Hemisphere an indication of population trend

SEATTLEBy Savio Pham

Father Peter C. Phan identified two significant trends in contemporary Christianity in a lecture at Seattle University on Thursday, April 18: the growth in Pentecostal churches and the shift in the world’s Christian population from the global north to the global south.

Christianity worldwide presents a complex mix of denominations, Father Phan said.

But, he stressed, “If we don’t look at Pentecostal/evangelical, we don’t know anything about contemporary Christianity … because Pentecostal is the fastest growing Christian denomination in the world.”

Father Phan holds the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University and is the first non-Anglo to be elected president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. His lecture, part Seattle University’s Catholic Heritage series, was entitled “What will the Catholic Church Look Like in 2050: A Prognostication from Asia.”Father Phan also said a significant shift in Christian demographics from the global north to the global South will occur by 2050.

“Four out of five Christians will live in the global South (by 2050),” he said, “meaning Asia, Africa and Latin America.” Father Phan noted that this reality is reflected in the election of Pope Francis from Argentina, the first pope in history from the Western Hemisphere and the first non-European elected pope in almost 1,300 years.

Adapting to the changing church demographics will require people who are literate in multiple cultures and languages to bridge the gap and lead an integration effort, Father Phan said.

Father Phan was born and raised in Vietnam, ordained in 1972 and migrated to the United States with his family in 1975 after the Vietnam War.  After arriving in Texas, his first job was as a garbage collector for the city of Plano, Texas, before earning three doctorates, including a Doctorate of Sacred Theology from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome. In 2007, the U.S bishops’ Committee on Doctrine examined Father Phan’s 2004 book Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue” and reported that it contained “pervading ambiguities and equivocations that could easily confuse or mislead the faithful.”

May 9, 2013