Catholic Church in Lebanon

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

There are about one million two hundred thousand Eastern Catholics in Lebanon, the majority of whom are not Latin Catholics, but instead follow a number of different rites of the Catholic Church - mostly Maronite, but also Melkite and non-native to Lebanon Catholic rites like Armenian, Chaldean, and Syriac.

The Maronite Catholic Church constitutes one of the largest Catholic churches in the Middle East. The "Land of the Cedars", as Lebanon is known, is the only one in the region where Catholics play an active role in national politics. Besides the President of the Republic (which, by the Constitution, must be a Maronite Catholic), there are in Lebanese Parliament 43 seats to Catholics out of a total of 128 seats. Catholics are also well represented in the government and in the public. Until the sixties Catholics were also the major component of the population and represented 43% of all Lebanese. Nowadays they are 26% of the total population, being Maronites 21% and Melkites 5%.

Recent history

Muslim and Christian communities coexist in the country for centuries. Cohabitation was sanctioned by a National Pact in 1943, which created a democracy based on religious communities. The country became a good example of religious and ethnic coexistence. But that lasted only a few decades. The larger communities, Christian and Muslim, were upset by the long civil war that raged between 1975 and 1990. The religious geography of the capital Beirut was redrawn: 65,000 Shiite Muslims abandoned their neighborhoods, and Nabaa chout; from interior regions, in contrast, to the capital flowed 80,000 Maronites and Druzes.[1] As a result of the Civil War, West Beirut was progressively abandoned by Christians. Also, a mass exodus fleeing saw tens of thousands of civilians, including Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims.

Not enough internal upheavals, during this period, tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees entered the country. At the end of the Lebanese Civil War, Christians, by majority, were discovered minority.

Today Muslims are asked to review the National Pact agreement of 1943. For Christians there is the danger to pass from the status of full rights community to minority status.

In 1995 it was held a Special Assembly of Bishops for the Lebanon, convened by Pope John Paul II in Rome.

Territory and statistics

Since 1954 the Holy See has its own seat in Lebanon, the Apostolic Vicariate of Beirut.[2] with 15,000 Roman Catholics, 161 priests and 8 parishes in 2010. There are 1,883,000 Catholics in Lebanon (mainly Eastern Catholic Catholics), with 23 episcopal sees, 1,603 priests and 1,253 parishes belonging to the six Catholic rites.[3]

Rites of the Catholic Church in Lebanon

In addition to the Latin Church in Lebanon there are five other Catholic Churches sui iuris. Each is characterized by a liturgical rite specific differences. Among them, the main in Lebanon is the Syro-Antiochene. The Catholic Antiochian Rite form two distinct groups: the Maronite Church (main Catholic religious branch in Lebanon) and Syrian Catholic Church. Both churches have their patriarchal see in Lebanon. However, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church (second most important Catholic branch in Lebanon), Armenian Catholic Church and Chaldean Catholic Church are also present.

Apostolic Nunciature

The Apostolic Nunciature in Lebanon was established on 21 March 1947 with the short For christifidelium salutem by Pope Pius XII.

Nuncios


Lebanese Religious Institute (Orders)

List of religious institutes that have the mother house in Lebanon:


Maronite Religious Institutes (Orders)


Melkite Religious Institutes (Orders)


See also

References

  1. ↑ [Andrea Riccardi, The century of martyrdom, Mondadori, p. 304.]
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
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