Roman Catholic Church in the Central African Republic

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The Roman Catholic Church in the Central African Republic is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church .

history

On May 8, 1909, Pope Pius X founded the Apostolic Prefecture of Oubangui Chari and appointed Pietro Cotel CSsP as its prefect. Pope Pius XI established on December 2, 1937 the Apostolic Vicariate Oubangui Chari , which was led by Pope Pius XII. renamed the Apostolic Vicariate Bangui and was elevated to an archbishopric on September 14, 1955; the first archbishop of Bangui was Joseph Cucherousset CSsP.

church

The total population of 5,507,257 inhabitants of the Central African Republic is divided into 25% Catholics, 25% Protestants, 15% Muslims, 35% followers of traditional religions . Traditional religions and animistic practices have a huge impact on the Christian majority.

The Catholic Church in the Central African Republic belongs to the Conférence Épiscopale CentrAfricaine (CECA) and is a member of the Symposium of the Bishops' Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM / SCEAM) . Apostolic Nuncio was Archbishop Franco Coppola until July 2016 ; his successor has been Archbishop Santiago de Wit Guzmán since March 2017 . The mass is celebrated in the Zairian mass rite , a variant of the Roman rite .

The church is administered by an archdiocese and eight dioceses . 149 diocesan priests and 112 religious priests are active in 119 parishes and three mission stations. 517 nuns and 99 friars as well as 15 lay missionaries and 6,279 catechists are active in the non-priestly service, primarily in missions, education and social affairs.

In 2012, Fernando Cardinal Filoni , Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples , visited the country and ordained four bishops. Time and again, members of the Christian religions are subjected to reprisals due to the critical security situation. In 2010 the local religious leaders came together to react to the violence of the guerrilla fighters of the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony in the border area of ​​the Central African Republic , the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan .

structure

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Population , The World Factbook , as of July 2016, accessed on January 12, 2017 (English)
  2. ↑ Country data: Religions , accessed on January 12, 2017
  3. ↑ Country factsheet from missio Aachen , accessed on January 12, 2017
  4. ↑ “A Cardinal in the Land of Animists” , Vatican Radio , July 28, 2012
  5. ↑ Pastoral visit of Cardinal Filoni to the Central African Republic: “The hour of a new beginning” , L'Osservatore Romano , July 28, 2012
  6. ↑ “Africa / Central African Republic - Catholic Church on the Recent Changes” ( Memento of September 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Fides Service , April 7, 2003, accessed on July 30, 2012
  7. ↑ "Central African Republic: The Church is a Refuge for People" ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Church in Need , January 25, 2012, accessed on July 30, 2012
  8. ↑ "Africa / Central African Republic - In an attack on a Catholic church, two French employees of an aid organization were kidnapped and released again by the LRA: dozens of locals are still held hostage"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Fides Service , as of February 22, 2010, accessed July 30, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.fides.org  

Web links

  • Entry in catholic-hierarchy.org (English)