The
Catholic Church in Morocco
is part of the worldwide
Catholic Church
(particularly the
Latin Church
), under the spiritual leadership of the
Pope
in
Rome
. Catholics account less than 1% of the overall population of over 31 million. The country is divided into two
archdioceses
;
Rabat
and
Tangier
.
Christianity, originally introduced in the region in the 2nd century AD, decreased after the
Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
in the 7th century. During the 12th and 13th century Christians newcomers, coming as captives, mercenaries or merchants, revived Christianity with the aid of missions by the
Franciscans
and papal support.
These missions, continuing into the 18th century, focused primarily on providing
pastoral care
to the local Christians though occasionally they also sought to
proselytise
Muslims. At times, Catholics were persecuted by the local government or local population.
When the Spanish and French divided Morocco into respective protectorates, the conditions of the Catholic Church flourished due to an influx of around 470,000 Catholics.
[3]
Catholic churches,
schools
, and
hospitals
were built throughout the country, and until 1961,
Sunday mass
festivities were broadcast on radio and television networks. After the
independence
, the Catholic population decreased significantly as many Catholics left to France or Spain.
[5]
Since then, the Catholic Church continues to provide pastoral care to remaining Catholics and engages in
interreligious dialogue
.
History
[
edit
]
Early Christianity
[
edit
]
Christianity was introduced to the region in the 2nd century AD, and gained converts in the towns and among slaves as well as among
Berber
farmers. By the end of the 4th century, the Romanized areas had been Christianized, and inroads had been made among the Berber tribes, who sometimes converted en masse. According to tradition,
Marcellus of Tangier
was martyred at
Tingi
(Tangier) during the
Diocletianic Persecution
in 298 after he declared he could
no longer serve in the army
and is today considered a saint by the Catholic Church.
[6]
Middle Ages
[
edit
]
The
disappearance of indigenous Christian communities in the Maghrib
remains a mystery though scholars have begun to develop models to understand this better.
It is typically assumed that Morocco's indigenous Christian population disappeared likely in the reign of the
Almohad Caliphate
during which also many Jews went into exile.
[8]
Nevertheless, Christian communities persisted among the Berber tribes into the twelfth and thirteenth century when new groups of Christians came to Morocco which can be divided into three groups.
The first consisted of Christian captives, primarily those deported by the
Almoravids
in the first half of the twelfth century and including both
Mozarabs
from
al-Andalus
as well as Christians from the kingdoms of northern Iberia.
These would often become slaves unless they converted to Islam or were ransomed by their families or by the
Trinitarian
and
Mercedarian orders
which were founded for that purpose in the late twelfth century.
The second included Christian mercenaries and exiled Iberian nobles such as the Castilian count
Fernando Nunez de Lara
or Portuguese
infante Pedro of Coimbra
who crossed the strait of Gibraltar to offer their military services in North Africa, especially during the ascendancy of the Almohads in the Maghrib between 1147 and 1248.
The third group were merchants from Catalonia, Provence and the
Italian maritime republics
that had secured commercial relations.
Though there is no information on the size of these new communities, they seem to have been sizeable.
Sources such as
archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez
report that a vicus (suburb or village) known as
Ebora
or
Elbora
existed outside of Marrakesh where an exclusive Christian population, called contemptuously
beni Farkhan
by Muslims, lived enclosed by sturdy walls and its own church.
Even the puritanical Almohads tolerated these Christian groups due to the economical value of the trade and the military power they provided, though they prohibited
proselytism
.
[14]
A problem arose as these groups would need a priest to administer rites, but by that time no Latin clergy remained in Morocco. Though Christian nobles or merchants would bring a
chaplain
and the Trinitarians and Mercedarians would take care of the captives from the end of the twelfth century, the structure of the Church was disunited and while the captives were unfree, the mercenaries and merchants were often only periodically in the region and the spiritual care informal and undeveloped.
The effort of the Trinitarians directed papal attention to the region and in 1192,
Pope Celestine III
sent a priest to Morocco.
In 1198
pope Innocent III
wrote a letter asking to Almohad caliph to allow the Trinitarians to carry out their work in the region and sent two Trinitarians with a considerable amount of funds to purchase the freedom of Christian captives (according to sources, 186 prisoners were freed).
The most influential pope was
Honorius III
whose policy of protecting the existing Christian communities and winning converts among the Muslim population remained prominent in the papal curia into the 1250s.
In his papal bull
Vineae Domini custodes
from 1225 he exhorted and gave permission to friars from both the newly founded Dominican and Franciscan order to go to Morocco and not only to take spiritual care of the Christians but also convert Muslims, a change from the position of his predecessors.
In this, he also followed the example of the
Franciscans
who had sent missionaries to Muslim countries after the Second General Chapter in 1219 on suggestion of
Francis of Assisi
. While Francis went to Egypt, five missionaries, among them the Arabic speaking
Berard of Carbio
, went via Spain and Portugal to Morocco. Here, they preached the Gospel but were imprisoned by the sultan as proselytism was contrary to Islamic law and later beheaded after rejecting conversion to Islam. These five missionaries were later canonized and their feast day is celebrated on January 16.
[20]
A new mission took place in 1227 when, following the death of Francis of Assisi,
six friars under the leadership of Daniel
, Minister Provincial of Calabria, were sent upon their request on a new mission to Morocco. They too were imprisoned upon preaching and were beheaded when they refused to reject Christianity.
[21]
Additionally, Honorius III asked archbishop archbishop Rodrigo Jimenez to appoint one of the mendicant missionaries as new bishop of the newly constituted
diocese of Morocco
.
During the dynastical struggle after the death of
caliph Yusuf II
in 1224, his eventual successor
al-Ma?mun
started to rely more heavily on the Christian support and also broke with traditional Almohad policy. He declared that Jesus was the Mahdi, thus renouncing the claim of
Ibn Tumart
, founder of the Almohad dynasty. Al-Ma?mun asked king
Ferdinand III of Castile
for support who sent in 1229 some 500 knights in return for the concession that the Christians were allowed to build a church in Ebora and permitted to sound its bells. Also, while they had been previously banned from entering Marrakesh, they were now allowed inside its walls during daytime.
After al-Ma?mun died in 1232, his nephew and contender sacked Marrakesh and Ebora, massacring its Christian population including five Franciscan friars.
Al-Ma?mun's son
Abd al-Wahid II
was able to restore the kingdom, again with the help of Christian soldiers, and by 1237
pope Gregory IX
was rejoicing that the Moroccan Church was flourishing and a
bishop of Fez
is known to have existed since 1233.
However, by the late 1240s the tide had turned as the Almohad dynasty was losing control against the Marinids and a more traditionalist caliph,
al-Murtada
, was chosen who relied less on Christian troops and reasserted traditional doctrine of the Almohad caliphal authority.
Though he again prohibited evangelisation, al-Murtada continued to rely on Christian mercenaries and allowed Catholic priests to take care of their spiritual needs. He also rejected the petition of
pope Innocent IV
to allow the Christians to live in fortified places which would allow them to be protected during the ongoing wars in Morocco.
After the end of the Almohad dynasty in 1269, the subsequent
Hafsid
and
Marinid dynasties
continued to employ Christian soldiers and the Christian communities continued. When Marinid emir Abu Yusuf Yaqub established New Fez in the 1270s, he set aside a quarter for his Christian mercenaries so that they lived apart from Muslims.
Papal involvement became less, with exception of
pope Nicholas IV
, a former
minister general of the Franciscans
, who appointed a new bishop of Morocco in December 1289 and exhorted the Christian soldiers to act as Christian role models.
Franciscan missions
[
edit
]
In the 17th century new Franciscan missions took place and though
Juan de Prado
died in 1631 as a martyr under sultan
Al Walid ben Zidan
, Walid's successor
Mohammed es-Seghir
gave the Franciscans permission to establish themselves in Morocco.
The main focus of the mission was providing spiritual and pastoral care to Christian captives and the Christians living in Marrakesh. When on 2 June 1672
Moulay Ismail
forced his nephew and competitor Ahmed Ben-Mahrez to flee and entered Marrakesh, he ordered the Franciscans to move their convent to
Meknes
, ostensibly for their protection.
When they arrived on 2 July 1672, the friars settled among the Christian captives where they build a cabin which included a chapel, three
cells
and a
refectory
.
The Christian captives, who were held in Meknes to construct buildings for Moulay Ismail as slaves, amounted to around 3,000. When Moulay Ismail decided to move them to the eastern quarter of the town, he also forced the Franciscans to move to another spot.
This time the Franciscans were able to purchase three adjoining houses and installed a mission and hospital there which was inaugurated on 3 May 1693.
After two years, the mission was granted the status of a convent and Father Diego de Los Angeles became superior with the right to vote in the chapter. Due to his good standing with Moulay Ismail, the latter issued a
dahir
in which he allowed the Franciscans to remain in the country with thirteen friars and to further establish churches in Fez,
Tetouan
and Sale.
Under the protection of Moulay Ismail, the Franciscans cultivated amicable relations with notable Moroccans and offered their services and medical assistance to both Christian captives and poor Moroccans.
Additionally, they also served as diplomatic intermediaries and helped to negotiate the return of Christian prisoners.
[36]
[37]
While they received some assistance from the local population, they received funding primarily from Spanish donations and the Franciscan province of San Diego of Andalusia.
The mission came to an end in the 18th century after an
earthquake
destroyed their church, convent and hospice in 1755 and the persecution of Christians by
Moulay Yazid
.
[38]
[39]
During the French and Spanish protectorate
[
edit
]
Prior to independence, the numbers of the Catholics in
French Morocco
reached about 360,000 or about 4.1% of the population
[5]
while in
Casablanca
European
Christians
formed almost half of the population.
[40]
Catholics in French Morocco were mostly of French descent, and to a lesser extent of Spanish and Italian ancestry.
[5]
Some Moroccans of Berber or Arab descent converted to Christianity during the French
colonialism
.
[41]
In 1950, Catholics in
Spanish protectorate in Morocco
and
Tangier
constitute 14.5% of the population, and Spanish Morocco was home to 113,000 Catholic settlers.
[5]
Catholics in Spanish protectorate in Morocco and Tangier were mostly of Spanish descent, and to a lesser extent of Portuguese, French and Italian ancestry.
[5]
In the years leading up to the
First World War
,
European
Christians
formed almost a quarter the population of Tangier.
[42]
[43]
During Morocco's struggle for independence, the Catholic and Protestant churches stood in solidarity with the Moroccan people.
Already prior to independence, Catholics such as Msgr Lefevre, bishop of Rabat, imagined the role of the Catholic church as one of presence and service to the Muslim population as opposed to solely focusing on the European settlers. These Catholic were influenced by the ideas of the Catholic
mystic
and desert explorer
Charles de Foucauld
who promoted respect for the Muslim religion, Christian-Muslim dialogue and living closely together with the Muslim population.
Charles de Foucauld also inspired many Catholics to live among the Berber population as hermits or monastic communities such as Charles-Andre Poissonier who founded the
monastery of Tazert
.
[46]
After the independence
[
edit
]
Since independence in 1956, the European population has decreased substantially, and many Catholics left to France or Spain.
[5]
Independence prompted a mass exodus of the European Catholic settlers; after 1956 more than 75% of Catholic settlers left the country.
[3]
Upon invitation of archbishop Lefevre, the
monastery of Toumliline
was founded in 1952 which became host for that
International Meetings
, conferences on contemporary issues and interfaith dialogue that were attended by Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars.
These came to an end when during the
Years of Lead
the monastery was forced to close down and the community had to leave.
Nevertheless, the church continued Christian-Muslim dialogue, opening an inter-faith research center in Rabat in 1980-81 and supporting the formation of the Groupe de Recherche Islamo-Chetien in 1977, which still exists today.
In 2020, there are aporoximately 25,000 Catholics in Morocco; this included 53 priests and 155 nuns.
[49]
The two archdioceses consist of 35 parishes.
[46]
Most Catholics were
European
expatriates, with a big majority of
French
and
Spanish
from colonization and post-independence. The second group is composed of
Sub-Saharan
immigrants, mainly students. Aside from Arabic, all of the Europeans can speak Spanish and French, which are also spoken by Catholic Arabs, Berbers, and Moors, and these languages are used in the celebration of Mass, in prayer meetings, and in education.
[
citation needed
]
During his visit to Morocco on March 31, 2019, Pope Francis openly acknowledged that there Catholics, including the Catholic church workers, are a minority in the country.
[50]
There are several
monastic orders
active in the country, among them the
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
[51]
and
Trappists
.
[52]
Though Christian
proselytation
is forbidden in Morocco,
[5]
there are also converts from
Islam
, the dominant religion of the country. Those that convert keep their faith secret as they often force discrimination and legal charges like also converts to
Shiism
.
[53]
There are also between 3,000 and 10,000 Protestants in the country, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa.
[54]
[55]
List of cathedrals and churches
[
edit
]
Archdiocese of Rabat
[
edit
]
The
Archdiocese of Rabat
is divided into 4 regions:
Region of Rabat
[
edit
]
Rabat
Region of Casablanca
[
edit
]
Casablanca
El Jadida
Region East
[
edit
]
Fes
- Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
Meknes
Midelt
Region South
[
edit
]
Agadir
Essaouira
- Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Marrakech
Ouarzazate
Archdiocese of Tangier
[
edit
]
Tangier
Tetouan
- Church of Nuestra Senora de las Victorias
Asilah
Chronology of Catholic Dioceses
[
edit
]
- 40-100
Toledo
- Spain (Tamazgha, Morocco)
- 300-400 Toledo (Metr.) - Spain (Tamazgha, Morocco)
- 1226
Fez
(established from Toledo)
- 1234
Marrakech
(in part continuation of the Fez diocese after the latter's suppression)
- 1469
Tanger
/ Tangier (detached from
Ceuta
, and from Marrakech)
- 1487
Safi
(detached from Marrakech before 1487) - (Algarve behind the sea)
- 1542 Safim (incorporated in Tanger) - (Algarve behind the sea)
- 1566 Marrakech (suppressed)
- 1570 Tanger (suppressed) - (Algarve behind the sea)
- 1630 Marocco / Marruecos (AP, See in Tanger) - (State of Fez, State of Morocco)
- 1908 Marocco / Marueccos (AV) - (Spanish Morocco, French Morocco)
- 1923
Rabat
(AV, detached from Marocco) - (French Morocco)
- 1955 Rabat (AD)
- 1956 Tanger (AD, and new name, previously Marocco)
Reference
Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Morocco
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
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.
catholic-hierarchy.org
. Retrieved
5 May
2024
.
- ^
"Catholic Church in Morocco"
.
gcatholic.org
. GCatholic.org
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5 May
2024
.
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a
b
c
Greenberg, Udi; A. Foster, Elizabeth (2023).
Decolonization and the Remaking of Christianity
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ISBN
9781512824971
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
F. Nyrop, Richard (1972).
Area Handbook for Morocc
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ISBN
9780810884939
.
- ^
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"Martyrdom of Marcellus"
.
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5 May
2024
.
- ^
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Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times
. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 10.
ISBN
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. Retrieved
30 April
2024
.
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West African Christianity : the religious impact
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- ^
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Religious Regimes and State Formation: Perspectives from European Ethnology
. SUNY Press. p. 247.
ISBN
978-0-7914-0650-2
. Retrieved
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.
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(PDF)
.
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.
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: 725?738
. Retrieved
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- ^
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- ^
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. Retrieved
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- ^
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A history of the Arab peoples
." Harvard University Press. p.323.
ISBN
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- ^
Fahlbusch, Erwin; Bromiley, Geoffrey William; Lochman, Jan Milic; Mbiti, John; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Vischer, Lukas; Barrett, David B. (2003).
The Encyclopedia of Christianity: J-O
.
ISBN
978-0-8028-2415-8
.
Archived
from the original on 26 August 2021
. Retrieved
20 April
2016
.
- ^
Petrides, Sophron (1913), "
Tingis
",
Catholic Encyclopedia
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.
- ^
"Tangier"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 397?398.
- ^
a
b
Zengarini, Lisa (18 December 2019).
"Marocco: torna a nuova vita il Monastero della Visitazione di Tazert - Vatican News"
.
www.vaticannews.va
(in Italian)
. Retrieved
21 April
2024
.
- ^
Catholics And Culture website
- ^
"Pope in Morocco: 'Ecumenism of charity' allows religious to be neighbours to all - Vatican News"
. 31 March 2019.
- ^
Anglade, Eric.
"The Franciscan missionary sisters of Mary will no longer be looking after Ouarzazate"
.
SudEstMaroc
. Almaouja
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Olivera, Bernardo (21 May 2006).
"Tibhirine Today"
.
tibhirine monastery today
.
Rome
: Order of Cistercians of Strict Observance.
- ^
Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce; Zisenwine, Daniel (2013).
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. Routledge. pp. 51?52.
ISBN
9780415695466
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
US State Dept 2021 report
- ^
Middle East Online website
Sources
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edit
]
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"
'Spirit of Toumliline' Interfaith Inquiry Lives On 50 Years After Moroccan Monastery Closed"
.
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23 January
2024
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- "Monasticism: End Of An Adventure"
.
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2024
.
External links
[
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]
Other
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Sovereign states
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States with limited
recognition
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Dependencies and
other territories
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