Eritrean Catholic Church

Eritrean Catholic Church
ClassificationEastern Catholic
PolityEpiscopal
GovernanceMetropolitanate
PopeFrancis
Metropolitan
(Archbishop of Asmara)
Menghesteab Tesfamariam
RegionEritrea
LiturgyAlexandrian Rite
HeadquartersAsmara
Origin1868
Eritrea (1)
Members167,722 (2017) [1]

The Eritrean Catholic Church [a] or Eritrean Eastern Catholic Church is a sui iuris (autonomous) Eastern Catholic church based in Eritrea. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It was established in 2015 when its territory was separated from the Ethiopian Catholic Church. The church is organized under a metropolitan bishop who exercises oversight of a number of suffragan dioceses.[2] In its liturgical services, it uses the Alexandrian Rite in the Ge'ez language.[3]

It holds to the Christological definition taught at the Council of Chalcedon and accepts the universal jurisdiction of the Pope. These religious beliefs distinguish it from the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which is an Oriental Orthodox church comprising most of the Christians in the country.

  1. ^ "The Eastern Catholic Churches 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  2. ^ "a Metropolitana sui iuris archieparchia Neanthopolitana seiungimus eparchias Asmarensem, Barentuanam, Kerensem et Segheneitensem. Ex ita facto territorio, quod Erythraeam complectitur, novam Metropolitanam Ecclesiam sui iuris Asmarensem appellandam constituimus" (Apostolic constitution Multum fructum of 11 January 2015)
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Multum fructum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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