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Choosing a New Pope

By Allonne Wilson

  • Previous Knowledge

    The Catholic Church has been trying to solve a sex scandel problem involving catholic priest and Pope Benedict XVI has resigned on Feb. 28th.
    This information different from the information in the arcticle because according to the article the Catholic Church is losing control in Europe as more european people are not believing in religion due to the church not changing its strict ways.

  • Main Idea

    The text is about the issue of the Catholic Church losing believers in Western Europe because the church refuses to change its strict ways and this does not attract the attention of youth in Europe who live in a very modern, non-religious society. Three facts that support this are:
    Less people are joining the clergy leaving the average priest at age 75.
    In 2012, 35% of French people claim to be of no religion and 63% of that are ages 18-24.
    The number of catholic marriages has dropped 40%.

  • Supporting fact 1

    Less people are joining the clergy leaving the average priest at age 75.

  • Prediction 1

    The amount of people joining the clergy will continue to decline until almost all the priest in France will have to be imported and the average age will rise to 78 years by 2014.

  • Supporting fact 2

    In 2012, 35% of people in France claimed to be of no religion and 63% of that is between the ages 18-24.

  • Prediction 2

    The number of people claiming to be of no religion will be about 41% in France in 2013.

  • Supporting fact 3

    The number of catholic marriages in France has dropped 40%.

  • Prediction 3

    The number of catholic marriages will continue to drop to 45%.

  • Prediction Accuracy

    Between 1999 and 2009 the marriage rate in France dropped 16% which is 1.6% per year so the accuracy of my prediction that France's 40% drop in marriage would increase to 45% from 2011 to 2013 is close.
    I was unable to find any statistics to find the accuracy on the other two predictions.

  • Citation

    Price, Matthew (2013, March 9). Choosing a Pope; France's Catholic Legacy. 1. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21702993