In an address at a meeting organized by the Dicastery for Evangelization and the Pontifical Mission Societies, an official of the Comboni missionary order described European dioceses as a “dry womb.”
Father Giulio Albanese, who writes frequently about Africa for the Vatican newspaper, said that in 1990, “there were nearly 24,000 Italian missionaries, including 800 lay people.” Today, “there are 4,000 Italian missionaries, including 2,000 lay people.”
While praising the increase in lay missionaries, the priest said that “it is clear that if the churches, and I am thinking especially of the European churches, become, pardon the expression, a dry womb, they betray their vocation, they go against nature.”