Eritrean Catholic Church

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Kidane-Mehret Cathedral of the Asmara Archeparchy
Eritrean Catholic Church
Basic data
Jurisdiction status Metropolitan Church
rite Alexandrian / Ethiopian
Liturgical language Old Ethiopian
Establishment date 19th January 2015
Seat Asmara Archeparchy
Hierarch Metropolitan and Archeparch of Asmara Menghisteab Tesfamariam MCCJ
statistics
Jurisdictions 4th
Believers 150,000
Bishops 5
Parishes 125
Diocesan priest 71
Religious priest 386
Permanent deacons 3
Friars 792
Religious sisters 929
Status: 2015
Template: Infobox rite church / maintenance / picture is missing

The Eritrean Catholic Church is a rite church of the Roman Catholic Church in the Ethiopian rite tradition . It was built on January 19, 2015 by Pope Francis as the Metropolitan Church sui iuris and split off from the Ethiopian Catholic Church . Head is the Metropolitan of Asmara Menghisteab Tesfamariam MCCJ . All dioceses belong to the ecclesiastical province of Eritrea .

The church has around 150,000 members, around 5% of the population of Eritrea.

Its Orthodox counterpart is the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church .

history

The Catholic faith was spread through the missionary work of Justinus de Jacobis , who worked in what was then Abyssinia from 1839 until his death in 1860. The believers came from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church , which at that time was still part of the Coptic Church , and retained their rite and the ancient Ethiopian language as the liturgical language .

Eritrea was an Italian colony since 1890 . In 1894 an Apostolic Prefecture for Eritrea was established and separated from the Vicariate Apostolic Abyssinia ( Ethiopia ). The prefecture was promoted to the Apostolic Vicariate in 1911. With the arrival of many Italian colonists, Latin Catholics became much more numerous than Indigenous Catholics.

On July 4, 1930, an ordinariate for the indigenous people was established. The first full professor was Bishop Kidanè-Maryam Cassà .

At the beginning of the 1940s, around 28% of the population of the colony of Eritrea were Catholic, around 11% of the population were Italian colonists and soldiers.

After the Second World War, most of the Italians left the country, so that the Vicariate lost its importance. The meanwhile more important Ordinariate became the Apostolic Exarchate of the Ethiopian Catholic Church in 1951 , Ordinarius Ghebre Jesus Jacob became the first Exarch. The Kidane-Mehret Cathedral became the bishopric .

The three eparchies between 1993 and 2012 (in red the Asmara eparchy)

On February 20, 1961, the Exarchate was elevated to the Asmara Eparchy . In the same year the Eritrean War of Independence broke out, which only ended with Eritrean independence in 1993. In May 1993 Pope John Paul II erected two more eparchies in Keren and Barentu . The Apostolic Vicariate was dissolved and the Latin faithful were placed under the hierarchy of the Ethiopian Church.

The fourth eparchy Segheneity was established by Pope Benedict XVI. on February 24, 2012 from cession of territory by the Asmara Eparchy.

As a result of the political separation from Ethiopia, Pope Francis established the Eritrean Catholic Church on January 19, 2015 as an independent metropolitan church sui iuris . It includes all believers and the four eparchies in Eritrea, who previously belonged to the Ethiopian Catholic Church . It is the 23rd Eastern Catholic Church .

structure

The Eritrean Catholic Church has four eparchies in the Ethiopian rite :

Since the dissolution of the Latin Apostolic Vicariate in 1995, all Catholic believers in Eritrea, including those of the Latin Rite Church , have been subject to the local Eastern jurisdiction of the Eritrean Catholic Church.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Eastern Catholic Churches 2013. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, accessed January 21, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Den Katolske Kirke "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Eritrea. Retrieved January 20, 2015 .
  3. ^ Changes in Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions in Eritrea , GCatholic.com
  4. ^ Bandini, Franco: Gli italiani in Africa, storia delle guerre coloniali 1882-1943 chapter Eritrea.
  5. ↑ DE ASMARA: Novus exarchatus apostolicus ritus alexandrini aethiopici in Erythraea erigitur, “de Asmara” nuncupandus , Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1952, pp. 206-209 ( Apostolic Constitution Aethiopica Alexandrini ).
  6. ↑ Acta Apostolicae Sedis 1996, pp. 349-350 and 354
  7. ^ Pope establishes Eastern Catholic church for Eritrea. In: CatholicCulture.org. January 19, 2015, accessed January 20, 2015 .
  8. ↑ erezione della Chiesa Metropolitana sui iuris eritrea e nomina del primo Metropolita. In: Daily Statements by the Press Office of the Holy See. Holy See Press Office , January 19, 2015, accessed January 20, 2015 (Italian).

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