Protestant and African traditional churches are attended by more than 40% of the populace. While these basic beliefs are common amongst all variations of Christianity, Catholicism also holds a number of exclusive views unique among Christian denominations. How Africa The Catholic Church is an important aspect of many peoples lives worldwide. Catholics believe in Adam and Eve, and they believe that all humans are sinners because of Adam and Eve's original sin. Catholicism became widespread in Spain in the 15th century following the conquest of Granada. Just like in the Europe and America, Christianity is practiced by the majority of people in the majority of Central African, Southeast African, and Southern African countries. About 20% of the population are Roman Catholics. Colombia is one of the most devout Catholic countries in South America. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); We use cookies to give you the best experience on our website. Celestine III had told Toledo's archbishop Martin to dispatch a priest for Christians in Morocco. Cardinal Peter Turkson, formerly Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, was once Africa's youngest cardinal at 64years old,[3][7] and was also one of several prelates from Africa estimated as papabile for the Papacy in the papal conclave of 2013. [These are ] things that post colonial governments in Africa have had a difficult time providing on a widespread scale.". Only 2% of the population practices Islam while the rest 5% are affiliated to various beliefs like the Bah Faith, Animism, etc.. Help us spread Gods love throughout the world and better the lives of the materially and spiritually impoverished, and donate to the Catholic World Mission today. San Marino comes in third based on the percentage of Catholics at 90.5%. Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences! The impact on Catholics in the pew is obvious, the Vatican said. C. J. Speel, II No European country ordained more priests than Nigeria. Christian news The increased number of diocesan and religious-order priests in Africa could not make up for the strong drop in Europe, which lost 2,502 priests in one year. To find out more and to change your Suite 103 "The Church provides hospitals, schools, [and] other social services. Catholic World Mission works to rebuild communities worldwide with generous donations from our supporters. } "logo": { [20], Before the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta, Franciscans were established there. By 2025, one-sixth (230million) of the world's Catholics are expected to be Africans.[4][5]. The Roman Catholic population is 20% or such. Roman Catholicism is the most prevalent Christian denomination in Rwanda, where 93.6% of the population is Christian. Recently the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, which includes Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Benin, Mali, Togo, Ghana, Senegal, Mauritius, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Sierra Leone, held a press conference to present the results of its own synodal deliberations. Some West African nations additionally house an expansive populace of Christians while Coptic Christians constitute a critical minority in Egypt. "mainEntityOfPage": { Only 1.1% of the countrys people identify as non-Christian, with the majority identifying as neither religious nor unaffiliated. 2. However, the further spread of Christianity in North Africa was hindered by the Islamic conquests of large parts of the region. When we say the central idea is inclusiveness, they prefer a house where there are rules and principles and not just a tent where anybody can just come in, he said. Filipe DAvillez provides in depth coverage along with interviews with local Catholic leaders in his piece earlier this week. 90% of people in Lesotho, a small landlocked country surrounded on all sides by South Africa, identify as Christians. This category has the following 22 subcategories, out of 22 total. In contrast, Christianity, in its different denominations, is growing across Africa. You're our business plan! formId: "4e1e50ac-9982-4275-8011-2d5f4e98f978", 2023 BBC. While many countries throughout the world are rich in Christs love, there are still many people who have yet to discover the blessing of Christ. Christian activity in Africa began in the 1st century when the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt was formed as one of the four original Patriarchs of the East (the others being Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem). Catholicism has remained the official religion of Brazil even after its independence. [25] Francis Arinze, a Nigerian Cardinal and adviser to Pope John Paul II, was considered papabile before the 2005 papal conclave, which elected Benedict XVI. For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux. Pope Francis is the first pontiff from the Global South, a term used to describe low and middle income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The average for 2013 based on 20 countries was 31 percent.The highest value was in Cape Verde: 87.8 percent and the lowest value was in Ethiopia: 0.6 percent. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. However, there are other reasons - including the fact that by being part of the Catholic Church people are part of "a social institution that provides a lot of support and security in places where precarious living is very common and widespread," Dr Manglos-Weber says. Finally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the most devout Catholic countries in Africa, with over 28 million citizens practicing Catholicism. In Swaziland, Christianity is also the most popular religion. Over 50% of the countrys Christians are Catholics while about a quarter being members of the Protestant churches including the Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, and others. Enter your email below, and you'll receive this table's data in your inbox momentarily. Alleviate suffering. [14] Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia until the early 15th century, and "[i]n the first quarter of the fifteenth century, we even read that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last of the persecuted Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there." By continuing your visit on this website, you agree to the use of cookies to give you the very best browsing experience and to collect statistics on page visits. Innocent III in 1198 requested the Almohads to allow the Trinitarian Order to perform its duties and in 1200 wrote a letter to the Christians enslaved there. The table below shows the population of Christian Countries in Africa: In Conclusion, the predominant religion in many African nations is Christianity. "I think Africa is where the future is really [for the Catholic Church]," says Nicolette Manglos-Weber, Assistant Professor of Religion and Society at Boston University's School of Theology. These cathedrals play a fundamental role in Spains history and signify the importance of the Catholic faith throughout the country. It will be his fourth visit to the continent since he became the head of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, compared to the two his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, made during his eight-year papacy. Republic) - 28,700,000 As of 26 June 2020, there are also 29 Cardinals from Africa, out of 222,[6] and 400,000 catechists. President Mobutu imposed a dictatorship on the country from 1965 to 1997, during much of which time the country was called Zaire. Angola also houses a large population of Christians accounting for 95% of the nations population. Pope Francis has also increased African representation in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. By 1960, the College of Cardinals had its first Sub-Saharan African, Laurean Rugambwa. The next highest rate was for Kenya where 73% of Catholics said they went to Mass at least weekly. In Lesotho, a tiny landlocked nation bordered on all sides by South Africa, 90% of the population follow Christianity. Christians make up 90% of Namibias total population. Pope Francis recently criticized the synodal path in Germany for being an exercise made by the elites. By the same token, it will be important that his own synod not be open to the criticism of being something made by the west.. Who was Nahel M, shot by police in Nanterre? But over the same period, the world's overall population also has risen rapidly. The annual publication, which contains the most comprehensive snapshot of the Catholic church and includes: alist of every diocese and bishop in the world; all Roman Curia offices and their personnel; the diplomatic corps at the Holy See; the worlds religious orders; pontifical academies and universities. In Brazil, the church plays a large role in daily life and is meaningful to millions of families. The majority of the Christian population of the country are Protestants with 75% of the national population being represented by this Christian denomination. As of now, most of the number of inhabitants in most Central African, Southeast African, and Southern African countries grasp Christianity. As weve already seen, Nigeria has ten times that total at 30.5 million. The WVS does not contain data for many sub-Saharan African nations, so here were using an average of the two countries we do have, Nigeria and Kenya, which works out to a Mass attendance rate of 83.5 percent. In the island nation of Seychelles, 93.1% of the national population is affiliated to Christianity including 76.2% Roman Catholics and 10.6% Protestants. Data from the CIA Factbook and the Pew Research Center has been used to identify nations with the highest population of Catholics. Last year the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) admitted that 35 cases of clerical abuse of minors have been reported in South Africa since 2003. They were recognised as forming the Moroccan Church by Pope Innocent IV. cookie settings click here. The United States has one of the highest Catholic populations globally, with approximately 51 million adults identifying as Catholic. And a study published by the US-based Center for Applied Research showed that in the period between 1980 and 2012 the . Islam, the Bah' Faith, and Hinduism are the religions followed by a small minority of Swazilands population while traditional religions are followed by a significant minority of the countrys population. More than 96% of Timor-Leste's population is Catholic. 97.0% of So Tom and Prncipes population are affiliated to Christianity with Roman Catholics accounting for 55.7% of the population. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. With 39% of the population identifying as Catholic, Latin America is the region with the most Catholics. However, the Islamic invasions of significant portions of the continent hampered the continuing growth of Christianity in North Africa. 90% of the national population of Namibia are Christians. [28] The Daily Telegraph has said that an "African papacy is the logical outcome" given that the majority of Catholics now live in the developing world, and in particular, the Catholic Church in Africa "has grown by 20 times since 1980. At Catholic World Mission, we strive to spread the message of the Church and Christ to enrich the lives of the spiritually and physically poor. When it comes to Catholic countries in Asia, the Philippines has one of the largest Catholic populations. In any case, the further spread of Christianity in North Africa was obstructed by the Islamic victories of substantial parts of the area. It put the number of Catholics in Africa at almost 200 million. The pillars of the Catholic World Mission are Evangelization, Education, Dignified Living. By that standard, heres the current Top Ten list. Christianity was spread in the country by the work of the Christian missionaries active in Angola. Diocese of Bangassou. When we tick off the worlds largest Catholic countries, we generally focus on overall population size, i.e., the number of baptized Catholics in those places. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Throughout history, missionaries have worked to spread the word and love of God throughout the world, spiritually enriching countless lives. The Latin Church remains the largest throughout the continent. "datePublished": "2021-12-16" }, Christian institutions have also carried out social work in Angola like helping the poor by providing free medical care, education, etc. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Mormons, and other Christian denominations account for the rest of the Christian population of the nation. Currently, the majority of the population of most Central African, Southeast African, and Southern African nations embrace Christianity. By 2060 six of the countries with the top ten largest Christian populations will be in Africa, up from three in 2015, according to a new Pew Research Center report. Highest Catholic Population 2023 - World Population Review African Countries Where Christianity is the Largest Religion To the northeast of the DRC, South Sudan is a much smaller country (about 11 million people) and is slightly less Catholic at 51% of the population. When Pope Francis flew from Italy to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, the pope departed from worlds fifth-largest Catholic country, and landed in the sixth largest. Overall, the scandals appear to be "more isolated and irregular - certainly not on the same scale as those in North America, Europe or even South America," Professor Garth Abraham, head of South Africa's only Catholic tertiary institution, says. It's a division of Christianity, the largest religion globally. In 2019 there were 1600 diocesan priests ordained in Africa compared to only 1306 in Europe. Learn which countries have large Catholic populations and why Catholicism is so important to their citizens. 29, No. The sultan Abd al-Wahid II in 1233 received a letter from the Pope referring to Bishop Agnello as the bishop of Fez. While the Pope's championing of the cause of the poor has been widely welcomed, the Church has also been hit by allegations of its clerics sexual abuse in Africa. The remaining 45% of the Christian population are Roman Catholics. In addition many Christians also migrated to Europe. Roman Catholics make up 55.7% of the population of So Tom and Principe, which has a 97.0% Christian affiliation. Outline Christianity portal v t e As of the year 2020, Christianity had approximately 2.4 billion adherents and is the largest-religion by population respectively. [1] Catholic Church membership rose from 2 million in 1900 to 140million in 2000. As a legacy of the Portuguese rule in the country, Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion here. Catholics use the Ten Commandments as a moral and ethical compass. Christianity is one of the two major religions in the African continent, the other being Islam. There are several core beliefs of Catholicism. But this does not mean that sex abuse on the part of Catholic clerics is less prevalent in Africa. The island nation was a significant hub for the trade of African slaves. Catholicism is one of the most common religions throughout the world, but these numbers vary depending on the region. If you know good journalism is worth paying for, subscribe today or upgrade your subscription! A document dated 10 March 1413 shows that the Antipope John XXIII had chosen Aimary de Aurrilac as the bishop of Morocco in place of Fray Diego de Jerez. "[25] Even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, three years before his own selection as Pope, labeled the prospect of an African pope as "entirely plausible" and a "wonderful sign for all Christianity. While Coptic Christians are a sizeable minority in Egypt, certain West African nations also have sizable Christian populations. Pope Francis in Africa: Is the continent the Catholic Church's great Using that assumption about the DRC, the fourth largest Catholic country in terms of Mass-goers would be Nigeria, followed by Colombia in fifth place. We still have reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan around 1150 a significant report, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims around 680 as their administrative center after their conquest. As a legacy of the Portuguese rule in the country, Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion here. The role of Catholics in offering such services "far surpasses what either Protestant churches or Islamic communities have been able to", Dr Manglos-Weber adds. Also among the top 15 countries by Catholic population is Nigeria, despite only 15% of its population being Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church is increasing its flock in Africa, On his 2015 trip to Kenya Pope Francis championed the poor, The surprising truth about frozen fruit. The Church in Africa, by the numbers - The Pillar Learn which countries have large Catholic populations and why Catholicism is so important to their citizens. The Spanish first brought Catholicism to Colombia in 1508, and the first diocese was created in 1534. North America (8%) and Asia (12%) are also continents with lower Catholic demographics. A small Franciscan chapel and monastery in the mellah of the city existed until the 18th century.[24]. The Rwandan God Imana, who is frequently equated with the Christian God by many native Rwandans, is one example of how Christianity and traditional beliefs are frequently blended in Rwanda. Education is also an important aspect of our organization, and we provide educational services to impoverished young children to help break the cycle of poverty. 1. 30 Mansell Ct. Following closely after were Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 96% and 95% of their populations being Christians, respectively. [27] As Arinze was considered theologically conservative, Jenkins suggests he would have brought African "notions of authority and charisma" to the office, rather than democracy. This trip is not just an Africa story. In Africa, the religion was first introduced in Egypt in the mid-first century. 379397, "How did the Catholic Church respond to Africa's decolonization? Some of the African traditional religions are those of the Serer of Senegal, the Yoruba and Igbo of Nigeria, and the Akan of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and the Bono of Ghana and Ivory Coast. With close to 127 million Catholics, Brazil has more Catholics than any other country, and 11.7 percent of the world's Catholic population. Throughout history, the beauty and joy of Catholicism and God have been shared with the world, allowing others to grow emotionally and spiritually. South Sudan became an independent country after a referendum in 2011 after a history of ethnic and religious conflict between the region and the rest of Sudan, which is ethnically more Arab and religiously much more Muslim. The church oversees a huge network of hospitals, shops, farms, etc. In addition, Catholics value praying to deceased saints and the Virgin Mary, whereas Christians pray only to the Holy Trinity of the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. 95.8% of the countrys population are affiliated to the religion. Only 2% of the population practices Islam while the rest 5% are affiliated to various beliefs like the Bah' Faith, Animism, etc.. The Pillar gives you a look at the numbers. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()), Birthday Wishes for Servant of God with Bible Verses. First, pay careful attention to Pope Franciss six-day trip to Congo and South Sudan, which opens today and which marks his third voyage to sub-Saharan Africa. Catholicism is a religion practiced in nations all around the world. Next after Italy is the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Pope Francis is today. While right and wrong arent determined by headcounts, its still an arresting exercise to compare the numbers of practicing Catholics in two representative Catholic nations. 770-828-4966. 37.7% of the population is affiliated to Protestantism and 11.8% are Seventh-day Adventists. Can God Forgive Me for Watching Inappropriate Content? So Tom and Prncipe The island nation was one of the important centers of the African slave trade. [9][10], Many causes have been seen as to leading to the decline of Christianity in Maghreb. Christianity is also the most common religion in Swaziland. Seychelles In the island nation of Seychelles, 93.1% of the national population is affiliated to Christianity including 76.2% Roman Catholics and 10.6% Protestants. "The Holy Father wanted a very simple hotel, and rejected the first choice sent to the Vatican, asking for less expensive accommodation for his secretaries, undersecretaries, bishops and cardinals," a church leader in Mozambique was quoted by local media as saying. 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Tanzanian Pilot Who Just Made History Flying The First Cargo-only Aircraft in Africa, Tiltepec: From Humans to Animals, Every Living Being is Blind in this Village in Mexico, Sadio Mane Breaks His Silence on Punching His Team-mate Leroy Sane Last Season, Titanic Submersible Mothership That Plunged 5 Men into Doomed Dive Returns to Shore, 5 Famous People From Barbados You Should Know, UK Govt Announces Huge Recruitment Drive For Health Service. . In this post, we explore the most Catholic countries in the world, as well as the least Catholic countries. Non-Christian faiths account for only 1.1% of the country population while the rest are non-religious or non-affiliated to any religion. The Church of Christ in Congo, commonly known as the Protestant Church, has around 25 million adherents, making it one of the largest Protestant organizations in the world. In Spain, approximately 61.3% of citizens identify as Catholic, accounting for over 32 million residents. Priests on the continent were accused of taking wives and concubines. Most Catholic Countries Worldwide, Increase Seen In Global South - HuffPost Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses. In the 1500s, the Spanish introduced Catholicism to the United States, beginning in the areas now known as Florida, Texas and California. Todays top stories delivered straight into your inbox. 2020 was the year the United Nations estimates that Africa will have a population of 1.2 billion people.
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