For the first time, after eight years, the Holy See has once again published the statistical data on attendance and participation in Audiences and Liturgical Celebrations under Pope Francis. The totals had previously been kept under wraps by order of Pope Francis.
The published figures show a continuous decline in the number of participants during the Francis pontificate and in comparison to his predecessors. In 2013, the year of his election, the total number of participants was still close to seven million. In 2014, it fell slightly to about 6.6 million, but already in 2015 it fell to around 3.2 million. Early on, critics of the Bergoglian pontificate had drawn attention to this decision of the faithful "voting-with-their-feet." By 2017, the figure continued to decline to 2.7 million. During the COVID years, the Bergoglian court could conveniently hide behind the alleged ‘state of emergency’—one that governments, including the Vatican’s own, meaning Francis himself, had helped to create in the first place.
In the last two years of his pontificate, 2023 and 2024, only about 1.7 million believers registered.
The data released by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household includes General Audiences, Jubilee Audiences, Special Audiences, Liturgical Celebrations and the Angelus Prayer. The year 2025 is very fitting for a direct comparison with the pontificate of his successor Leo XIV, since it should have especially led pilgrims to Rome as a Holy Year:
Up until Pope Francis’s hospitalization on 14 February 2025, over 250,000 participations were recorded. After the election of Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, the numbers increased significantly, a total of 3,176,620 participations were counted for 2025. The difference is more than double.
Under Francis, it became increasingly common for pilgrims to Rome not to feel automatically drawn to attend a papal event. The full meaning of this separation has yet to become clear.
The monthly statistics show that under Pope Francis, especially in the early months, comparatively few visitors were present, while the figures under Pope Leo XIV rose significantly. The breakdown by type of event shows that especially the Angelus Prayer and the Liturgical Celebrations were heavily attended, while Special Audiences and Audiences to which Francis attached great importance, while he completely refrained from Liturgical Celebrations in the last two years, have comparatively lower numbers.
The publication marks the return of a long-standing tradition of the Holy See to make the exact documentation of the attendance figures in ecclesiastical events publicly available. The previous secrecy had caused controversy.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi, https://katholisches.info
(Plinthos translation)
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