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The Catholic Church in Africa is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See in Rome.
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).
However, the Islamic conquest in the 7th century resulted in a harsh decline for Christianity in Northern Africa.
Yet, at least outside the Islamic majority parts of Northern Africa, the presence of the Catholic Church has grown in the modern era, in Africa as a whole, one of the reasons being the French colonization of several countries in Africa.[1] Catholic Church membership rose from 2 million in 1900 to 140 million in 2000.[2] In 2005, the Catholic Church in Africa, including Eastern Catholic Churches, embraced approximately 135 million of the 809 million people in Africa. In 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa, it was estimated at 158 million.[3] Most belong to the Latin Church, but there are also millions of members of the Eastern Catholic Churches. By 2025, one-sixth (230 million) of the world's Catholics are expected to be Africans.[4][5]
The world's largest seminary is in Nigeria, which borders on Cameroon in western Africa, and Africa produces a large percentage of the world's priests. As of 26 June 2020, there are also 29 Cardinals from Africa, out of 222,[6] and 400,000 catechists. Cardinal Peter Turkson, formerly Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, was once Africa's youngest cardinal at 64 years old,[3][7] and was also one of several prelates from Africa estimated as papabile for the Papacy in the papal conclave of 2013.
- ^ Seay, Laura (2019). "How did the Catholic Church respond to Africa's decolonization? This new book explains". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019.
- ^ The Catholic Explosion Archived 14 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Zenit News Agency, 11 November 2011
- ^ a b Rachel Donadio, "On Africa Trip, Pope Will Find Place Where Church Is Surging Amid Travail," New York Times, 16 March 2009.
- ^ David Barrett, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 30, No 1, January 2006, 29.
- ^ Donadio, Rachel (15 March 2009). "On Africa Trip, Pope Will Find Place Where Church Is Surging Amid Travail". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "Pubblicazione dell'Annuario Pontificio e dell'Annuario Statistico della Chiesa" [Publication of the Pontifical Yearbook and the Statistical Yearbook of the Church]. Sala Stampa della Santa Sede (in Italian). 25 March 2020. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
- ^ "Synod to Address Ethnic and Religious Divisions," America, 12 October 2009.