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The Catholic Church in Afghanistan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. Prior to August 2021, there were very few Catholics in this overwhelmingly Muslim country—just over 200 attend Mass in its only chapel—and freedom of religion has been difficult to obtain in recent times, especially under the new Taliban-led Afghan government.
Earlier Christians in Afghanistan were members of the historical Church of the East or the Armenian Apostolic Church, and there had been no sustained Catholic presence in Afghanistan until the 20th century. In 1921, the Italian embassy in Kabul was allowed to build the first and only legal Catholic chapel to serve foreigners working in the capital, but not open to local nationals.[1] On 16 May 2002, Pope John Paul II established a mission sui iuris for Afghanistan with Giuseppe Moretti as its first superior, presently Giovanni M. Scalese. In 2004, the Missionaries of Charity arrived in Kabul to carry out humanitarian work. Following the 2021 Taliban offensive, the Catholic Church ceased to have a functioning presence in Afghanistan.
- ^ USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2009). "International Religious Freedom Report 2009". Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
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