《中英對照讀新聞》Muslims more numerous than Catholics：Vatican梵蒂岡︰穆斯林人數比天主教徒多

◎ 魏國金

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said.

伊斯蘭已經超越羅馬天主教，成為世界最大的單一宗教教派，梵蒂岡說。

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican’s newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world’s population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

編纂梵蒂岡新公佈的2008統計年鑑的蒙席弗曼提說，穆斯林佔全球人口的19.2%，天主教徒佔17.4%。

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top： the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano , saying the data referred to 2006.

「這是史上首度我們不再居冠︰穆斯林已經超越我們。」弗曼提對梵蒂岡報紙羅馬觀察報指出，並說該資料是參考2006年的統計年鑑。

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world’s population -- or about 2 billion people.

他說，若所有的基督徒團體都納入考量，包括東正教、英國國教與基督新教，則基督徒佔全球人口的33%，或約20億人。

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.

梵蒂岡近期將全球天主教徒人數定為11億3000萬人。它並未提供穆斯林數據，大致推估為13億。

Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world’s population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.

弗曼提說，天主教徒在全球人口的比例維持穩定，穆斯林則因較高的出生率而逐步成長。

新聞辭典

overtake︰超越、突然降臨。例句︰He was overtaken by adversity.（他突遭災禍。）

monsignor︰蒙席，羅馬天主教教宗頒賜給有功神父的榮銜。

make up︰有構成、捏造之意，如make up the difference（彌補差額）、make up an excuse（編造藉口）。

來源：自由時報

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