Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholic Missions

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ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS

Native Middle Eastern groups or individuals or those who established religious institutions there to convert people to Roman Catholicism.

The term Catholic is ambiguous in the Middle East. In Arabic, it refers to the Melkites; in English, it refers to Christians of the Latin rite, usually called Roman Catholics in the United States.

Since the Christian Church evolved in the Middle East, differences in theology and ritual that had existed for centuries between the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire led to a schism in 1054. In the West (Europe) the Latin rite became basic to the Roman Catholic church. In the East (Byzantium) the Byzantine state church prevailed until the rise of Islam in the seventh century c.e. The expansion of Islam was rapid, with Muslims conquering North Africa and the Iberian peninsula by the eighth century and ruling until the fifteenth century. In 1009 Muslims destroyed the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; in 1095 Pope Urban II called for a holy war to "rescue the Holy Land from the Muslim infidels." To do this, the First Crusade was organized in 1096. The Crusaders, under Godfrey of Bouillon, succeeded in conquering Jerusalem in 1099. Seven more Crusades followed, with successes and failures, until the Mamluks of Egypt conquered Acre in 1291, evicting the Crusaders.

The Roman Catholic Church was reestablished in the Middle East in 1099, when a hierarchy under a Latin partriarchate at Jerusalem was established. By the end of the thirteenth century, however, after the Crusaders were evicted from the region, only the Franciscan Brothers stayed on as custodians of the shrines. As the Crusader venture collapsed, the pope's contacts with the Mongols in central Asia inspired the Franciscan and Dominican orders to work among them, in the Ilkhanate of Persia, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Then after the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul) to the Ottoman Turks in 1453—which ended the Byzantine Empire—Franciscan, Capuchin, Dominican, Carmelite, and later, Jesuit missionaries went to the provinces of the Ottoman Empire under the protection of European powers to try to convert Eastern Christians to Roman Catholicism.

In the nineteenth century the Latin-rite presence in North Africa increased because of the French occupation of Algeria. The ancient see of Carthage was restored in 1876. Cardinal Lavigerie was named primate of Africa, with more than one million Catholics in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia—where he founded the White Fathers and White Sisters to work in the region.

In 1847 the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem had been reestablished and numerous missionaries, engaged in education and nursing, had been sent to Ottoman Palestine. During the twentieth century, however, with the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies after World War I and the post–World War II independence of Israel, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, the Roman Catholic presence dwindled both in North Africa and in Palestine.

In 1990 the number of Latin-rite Roman Catholics throughout the Middle East was estimated to be 1.3 million (about 35 percent are migrant workers from Sri Lanka, India, and the Philippines). Some 566,000 Roman Catholics are indigenous to Sudan and more than 60,000 live in the West Bank and Jordan. These discrete communities are unusual for the region; most of the other Catholics form small communities or are family groups who left other local Christian churches, especially one of the Eastern Orthodox (which include the Nestorian and the Monophysite churches—the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and the Mar Thoma of India) or Uniate churches.

Arabia and the Gulf

The jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar for Arabia extends to the countries of the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf, excluding Kuwait, which has its own vicar. There are few local Catholics, but there are large
numbers of Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, and Filipino workers in the region. The Annuario Pontificio counts 470,000 for 1990. There are parishes in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Bahrain and Catholic schools in the U.A.E. and in Kuwait. In Saudi Arabia chaplains for foreign workers are allowed to operate "clandestinely," although this provokes occasional troubles. In North Yemen the government has called in nursing sisters to staff hospitals, and there are a few priests to care for expatriate Catholics.

Egypt

The three vicariates in Egypt had been reduced to one at Alexandria. While the official count of Latin Catholics is only 8,000, there are some 200 men and 1,000 women members of Latin orders and congregations, mostly engaged in education.

Syria

Syria, with a vicariate at Aleppo, lists 12,000 Latin Catholics, with about 250 men and women engaged in social and apostolic work since Catholic schools were closed in 1967.

Iraq

Baghdad is an episcopal see with an archbishop, but Latins number only a few thousand, and since Catholic schools were closed in Iraq, only a few Latin-rite religious orders remain, staffing a seminary, a parish, and a hospital.

Lebanon

Lebanon has a large number of Latin-rite religious orders and congregations, with about 250 men and over 1,000 women working in 150 Catholic schools, a university, several hospitals, and numerous social ministries. The community numbers about 20,000.

West Bank and Jordan

In the West Bank and Jordan a substantial Palestinian community of 60,000 Roman Catholics has its own patriarch and diocesan clergy (about 60) who celebrate the Latin rite in Arabic. There is a Catholic University at Bethlehem and over 270 educational establishments. As this region is the Holy Land, it is a center for several Catholic religious orders.

Sudan

The largest Middle Eastern indigenous Roman Catholic community is found in Sudan. Some 217,000 Roman Catholics are in Juba and some 348,000 are in Khartoum. Each city has its local ordinary with a growing diocesan clergy aided by a few hundred men and women in non-Sudanese orders. The famine in the south has caused the displacement of many Sudanese Catholics.

North Africa

Morocco has two residential sees, one in Tangiers and one in Rabat, caring for some 40,000 Catholics, including over 200 men and women in religious orders engaged in a variety of social and educational works.

Algeria has a metropolitan see at Algiers with suffragan bishops in Oran and Constantine ministering to over 40,000 Catholics. Men and women in religious orders number about 350, many engaged in secular roles. In both Morocco and Algeria the diocesan clergy is substantial (about 50 in each) but of European origin.

There has been a prelature in Tunis since 1964, when a Vatican accord with the government suppressed the see of Carthage and closed all but 7 of its 100 churches. Catholics number over 15,000, cared for by 15 priests. Over 200 men and women in religious orders work in a variety of apostolates, including the research institute and library of the White Fathers.

Libya has a vicar apostolic and about 30 women in religious orders working in hospitals. Four religious men and one diocesan priest care for the spiritual needs of the 30,000 or so expatriate Catholics.

Iran and Turkey

Iran has a bishopric at Isfahan and a few priests and nuns caring for the Latin-rite community of 2,000. Turkey has an episcopal see in İzmir and a vicariate in Istanbul for some 7,000 Catholics. The number of Roman Catholic expatriates fluctuates with economic conditions; still, their presence in the Middle East, which had been relatively stable, is now in decline. Missionary vocations are sparse, and the need for educational and social help from expatriates is narrowing. At the same time, the Vatican is concerned about the increased emigration from indigenous Latin communities that has been provoked by political constraint and the resurgence of pan-Islamic sentiment.