The Church’s Contribution to Integral Human Development

The concluding event of the inaugural 2025–2026 John Paul II Post-Doctoral Fellowship presented the first findings of an innovative quantitative research project focused on the statistical analysis of data from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church, combined with leading international development datasets. The Fellowship — a joint initiative of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences — was carried out under the direction of Sr. Helen Alford, OP, with academic coordination by Fr. Albino Barrera, OP. The project was a pioneering effort to use the Statistical Yearbook of the Church as the basis for interdisciplinary quantitative research on the Catholic Church’s contribution to integral human development, and brought together postdoctoral fellows from a range of disciplinary backgrounds.”