Islam is conquering the world, and not by sword but by number. There are already more Muslims than Roman Catholics, turning the Islamic religion into the world's largest religious denomination, as signaled by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The world's Catholics may make 1.13 billion people, while the Muslims go to around 1.3 billion.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us. Figures for 2006 showed that Catholics accounted for 17.4% of the world population while Muslims accounted for 19.2%," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, compilier of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican yearbook, told L'Osservatore Romano.

The explanation is very clear.
"While Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer. The figure for the Muslim global population was derived from data submitted to the United Nations by Muslim countries. The Vatican could vouch only for its own data," said Monsignor Formenti.

Still, Christians as a whole, including Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants and Anglicans make up 33% of the world population. And many ignore that Muslims include at least two large denominations, Shi'a (15%) and Sunni (85%).

"Latin America remained 'the stronghold' of Catholicism, and the American continent as a whole had nearly half the world's total," said Monsignor Formenti, who also signaled the significant decrease in the numbers of Catholic priests and nuns.

At the moment, the Vatican and Muslim leaders are involved in a Muslim-Catholic dialogue. Europe's largest mosque was opened in 1995 at Rome and its building was paid by Muslim countries, mainly by Saudi Arabia. This country bans Christian worship but it could allow the building of a church on Saudi soil following this Muslim-Catholic negotiation meant to establish diplomatic relations.