Eritrean Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church in Eritrea is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome.

There are approximately 150,000 Catholics in Eritrea, who follow both the Latin rite and the Ethiopian rite. There are three territorial jurisdictions in the country known as eparchies.^[1]

There are no Dioceses of Latin rite in Eritrea, only eparchies (Asmara, Keren and Barentu) and the main Cathedral is St. Joseph in Asmara, the capital.

So, the Eritrean Catholic Church with the Ethiopian rite, has the Dioceses (called even Eparchies in Ethiopian rite) of Asmara^[2], Keren and Barentu:

• The most important (and the original since 1930) is the one of Asmara.^[3]
• The Eparchy of Keren is the most important as percentage of total Eritrean population (nearly 12%). ^[4]
• The Eparchy of Barentu has been created in 1995.^[5]

Both Catholic denominations (the Ethiopian and the Latin) account for an estimated 5 percent of the Eritrean population. The Eritrean Catholic Church is "tolerated" by the actual dictatorship ruling Eritrea.

The nation has also many adherents of the original Roman Catholic Church in latin rite, most of whom are Italian Eritreans. When Eritrea was an Italian colony, all the Italians (colonists and military troops) professed the latin rite: in 1940 they were 10% of the total population.

The Cathedral of Asmara was their main religious center. So, in that year Catholicism was the religion of nearly 18% of people in the colony.

Actually (2010) there are only 900 Italian Eritreans, mostly old aged and all followers of the Latin rite.

• Ethiopic Catholic Church
• Italian Eritreans
• St Joseph's Cathedral, Asmara
• Christianity in Eritrea

• Asmara Cathedral
• Recent Eritrean Bishops' events