Catholic Church in Taiwan | |
---|---|
Chinese :台湾天主教教会 | |
Type | National polity |
Classification | Catholic |
Orientation | Latin |
Scripture | Bible |
Theology | Catholic theology |
Polity | Episcopal |
Governance | Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference |
Pope | Francis |
President | John Baptist Lee Keh-mien |
Apostolic Nuncio | Msgr. Stefano Mazzotti |
Region | Taiwan |
Language | Latin, Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, Hakka |
Headquarters | Taipei, Taiwan |
Origin | 1626 Spanish Formosa, Spanish Empire |
Branched from | Catholic Church in Spain |
Members | 221,000 (2021) [1] |
Official website | www |
Part of a series on the |
Catholic Church by country |
---|
Catholicismportal |
The Catholic Church in Taiwan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Church operates one university, the Fu Jen Catholic University.
According to the 2005 census, Christianity in Taiwan constituted 3.9% of the population; [2] this included approximately 300,000 Catholics.
Estimates in 2020 suggested that the portion had risen to 4% or 6%, [3] [4] [5] with Catholics making up 1% of the country's population. In the same year there were over 600 priests and 1,000 nuns serving in 424 parishes. [6]
In 1514, Taiwan was included in the Diocese of Funchal as a missionary jurisdiction; there was some organized Catholic activity on the island. In 1576, the first Chinese diocese, the Diocese of Macau, was established in Macau, a Portuguese colony, and covered most of China including Taiwan. The diocese of Macau was sub-divided several times over the next few centuries. In 1626, Northern Taiwan became a Spanish colony. In 1631, Jacinto Esquivel, a Spanish Dominican friar, built a church in Northern Taiwan. In chronological order, Taiwan belonged to the Archdiocese of Manila (1627), the Apostolic Vicariate (now Archdiocese) of Nanjing (1660), the Apostolic Vicariate of Fujian (now the Archdiocese of Fuzhou) (1696) and the Apostolic Vicariate (now Diocese) of Xiamen (1883).
In 1913, the Apostolic Prefecture of the Island of Taiwan (then called Formosa in foreign languages) was established out of the Diocese of Xiamen. It was renamed Apostolic Prefecture of Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) in 1949, when the Apostolic Prefecture of Taipei (now the Archdiocese of Taipei) was established out of its territory.
Before the end of World War II the Catholic Church had a very minor presence in Taiwan, based mainly in the south of the island and centred on Spanish Dominican priests who went there from the Philippines in the 1860s. The end of World War II and the following years saw a mass migration of religious communities from mainland China as Communist persecution began to take effect following the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. As a result, the Catholic Church has many Mandarin-speaking emigrants from the mainland.
In September 1951 the Papal Internuncio to China was expelled to Hong Kong. Since 1952, the Papal internuncio has been stationed in Taiwan (Republic of China). Also, the ROC ambassador to the Holy See has provided the only permanent diplomatic link between China and the Holy See. Attempts to move the Papal nuncio to Beijing have failed, as the Holy See has not accepted demands by the People's Republic of China that it sever its diplomatic links with Taiwan.
The current archbishop of Taipei is the Most Reverend Thomas Chung An-Zu (鐘安住), who was appointed on 23 May 2020 [7] [8] to succeed John Hung Shan-chuan (洪山川), S.V.D., who retired in the same year.
On 19 February 2021, Pope Francis formally granted a decree of canonical coronation for a Marian image of Our Lady of China, currently venerated at the National Shrine of Our Lady of China in Chiayi County, Taiwan.[ citation needed ]
An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese, or is a diocese, eparchy or similar permanent ordinariate that either has no bishop or, in very rare cases, has an incapacitated bishop.
An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it usually has an (embryonal) see, it is often not called after such city but rather after a natural or administrative geographical area.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Brunei Darussalam is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction covering the territory of Brunei and headed by an apostolic vicar. The first apostolic vicar was Cornelius Sim, who was created a cardinal in 2020 and died in May 2021.
The Catholic Church in Sierra Leone is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
The Catholic Church in Laos is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. The Catholic Church is officially recognized by the government.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Jakarta is a Metropolitan Latin archdiocese on Java, in Indonesia.
The Archdiocese of Conakry is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Guinea. It is the metropolitan see for its ecclesiastical province which covers all Guinea. It depends upon the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Archdiocese of Kinshasa is an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its ecclesiastic territory includes the capital city of Kinshasa and surrounding districts. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Kinshasa. The current archbishop is Fridolin Ambongo Besungu.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam is a Latin Metropolitan archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Tanzania.
The Archdiocese of Taipei }}) is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Taiwan. Pope Pius XII erected it as the Apostolic Prefecture of Taipei on 30 December 1949. On 7 August 1952, it was elevated to an archdiocese, with the suffragan sees of Chiayi, Hsinchu, Hualien, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Tainan.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuching is a Metropolitan Latin archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on Borneo, however remains dependent on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guangzhou (Canton) is an archdiocese located in the city of Guangzhou in China.
The Diocese of Chiayi is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Taiwan.
The Diocese of Hualien is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Taiwan.
The Diocese of Baguio is a Latin Church suffragan diocese of the Catholic Church in the Philippines comprising the city of Baguio and the province of Benguet on Luzon island in the Philippines. Its see is the Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral in Baguio, Benguet, Cordillera Administrative Region.
Christianity in Taiwan constituted 3.9% of the population, according to the census of 2005; Christians on the island included approximately 600,000 Protestants, 300,000 Catholics and a small number of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Apostolic Nunciature to China is the diplomatic mission of the Holy See to the Republic of China. The Republic of China is now more commonly referred to as “Taiwan”. However, as far as the Vatican is concerned, the Republic of China is the state of “China”. The Holy See does not have a diplomatic mission in, or diplomatic relations with, the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Apostolic Nunciature to China is located at 7–1, Lane 265, Heping East Road Section 2, Da'an District, Taipei.
The Apostolic Prefecture of Yueyang is Latin pre-diocesan jurisdiction of the Catholic Church with seat in Yueyang, Hunan province, central China.