Catholic Church in Zimbabwe


Catholic Church
in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean Diocese' boundaries. Harare and Bulawayo are metropolitan Archdiocese
TypeNational polity
ClassificationCatholic
OrientationLatin
ScriptureBible
TheologyCatholic theology
PolityEpiscopal
GovernanceZimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference
PopePope Francis
ZCBC PresidentRobert Ndlovu
Apostolic NuncioPaolo Rudelli
RegionZimbabwe
LanguageEnglish, Shona, Ndebele
FounderJesuits
Origin1887
Members1,367,669
Official websitehttp://www.zcbc.co.zw/

The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.

According to the 2017 Inter Censal Demography Survey by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency 8.0% of the population of Zimbabwe were Roman Catholic; overall, 84% of the country had a Christian background.[1]

There were 1,145,000 Catholics in the country (about 9% of the total population) in 2005.[2] By 2017, the censal survey had the number of Catholics at 1.2 million.[1]

In 2020, Catholic numbers were up to 2 million people, with 600 priests and 1,000 nuns serving across 267 parishes.[3]

Pius Ncube, the former archbishop of Bulawayo, was an outspoken critic of the then government of Robert Mugabe, who is also a Catholic.

  1. ^ a b Inter Censal Demography Survey 2017 Report, Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (2017)
  2. ^ Earth Healing website, statistics, Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD., 2005
  3. ^ Catholics and Culture website, retrieved 2023-08-08