Spain" "
Spain is the country with the highest number of missionaries in the world. The majority are members of religious orders, mainly women. The statistics issued to coincide with the national missionary congress held by the Spanish Episcopal Conference at Burgos in recent days, speak of some 20,000 Spanish missionaries, 54.1% women and 45.9% men; of these, 52.07% are religious and 4.62% laypeople. Diocesan priests account for 8.08%. Some 800 delegates from all over the world attended the Burgos congress. According to the data of CONFER (Conference of Spanish Religious), 14,706 Spanish men and women missionaries belong to religious institutions; they are mainly working in South America, Europe and Africa. The Spanish province that has given most missionaries to the world is Navarre; Burgos is in second place. Venezuela, with 1,095 Spanish missionaries, is the mission country with the highest number of presences, followed by Peru and Chile. In spite of the fact that Spain tops the league table in terms of numbers of missionary vocations, more young people willing to serve as missionaries abroad are needed. Today six Spanish missionaries out of ten are over the age of 63, only one in ten below the age of 43. Among the initiatives presented to the conference: the installation in all the churches of the diocese of Valencia of terminals to permit the faithful to locate the 760 missionaries of the province. The initiative, called “Mundo Solidario”, will permit the faithful to check the budget, statistics and development projects of Valencian missionaries throughout the world.
