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The Catholic Church in Liberia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
In 2020, there were approximately 348,000 Catholics in Liberia (7.52% of the population). [1] There are 3 dioceses including 1 archdiocese: [2]
Lewis Jerome Zeigler was the archbishop until 2021; in 2023, the seat is vacant.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Americo-Liberian settlers were to be found on the seacoast and at the mouths of the two most important rivers. Of the native tribes, the principal are the Veys, the Pessehs, the Barlines, the Bassas, the Kru, the Grebo, and the Mandingos. The converts came chiefly from the Kru and the Grebo. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterians, and Episcopalian missions had been established in the country for many years with scant results at the beginning of the 19th century.
As a number of the first American colonists were Catholics from Maryland and the adjoining states, they eventually caught the attention of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the second Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1833 undertook to meet the difficulty of sending missionaries to serve the local faithful. In accordance with the measures taken, Rev. Edward Barron, Vicar-General of Philadelphia, Rev. John Kelly of New York, and Denis Pindar, a lay catechist from Baltimore, volunteered for the mission and sailed for Africa from Baltimore on 2 December 1841. They arrived there safe and Father Barron serve the first Mass at Cape Palmas on 10 February 1842. After a time, finding that he did not receive missionaries enough to accomplish anything practical, Father Barron returned to the United States, and thence went to Rome where he was made on 22 January 1842, Vicar Apostolic of the Two Guineas, and titular Bishop of Constantia.
With seven priests of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, he returned to Liberia, arriving at Cape Palmas on 30 November 1843. Five of these priests died on the mission of fever, to which Denis Pindar, the lay catechist, also fell a victim, on 1 January 1844. Bishop Barron and Father Kelly held out for two years, and then, wasted by fever, they determined to return to the United States, feeling that it was impossible to withstand the climate any longer. Bishop Barron died of yellow fever during an epidemic at Savannah, Georgia, on 12 September 1854, and Father Kelly died at Jersey City, New Jersey, on 28 April 1866.
The Fathers of the Holy Ghost, who took up the work, were also forced by the climate to abandon it in a couple of years, and the permanent mission lapsed until 25 February 1884. The Fathers of Montfort (Company of Mary), under Fathers Blanchet and Lorber, then laid the foundation of another mission at Monrovia. The President of the Republic, Mr. Johnson, and the people generally gave them a cordial welcome, because of its emphasis on providing a thorough education, but the sectarian ministers organized a cabal against them, and endeavoured to thwart all their efforts to spread the Catholic faith. They made some progress in spite of this, and in the following year, having received reinforcements from France, opened a school for boys and extended their operations into other places. Father Bourzeix learned the native language, in which he compiled a catechism and translated a number of hymns. Deaths among the missionaries and the health of the others shattered by fever forced these priests also to abandon the Liberia mission. After this it was visited occasionally by missionaries from Sierra Leone until 1906, when the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples handed its care over to the Society of African Missions from Lyon, and three Irish priests, Fathers Stephen Kyne, Joseph Butler, and Dennis O'Sullivan, with two French assistants, continued to work among the 2800 Catholics the vicariate was estimated to contain in 1910. [3]
Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Liberia were established in 1927, celebrated by a spectacular and massive march through the streets of Monrovia on the feast of Christ the King, which subsequently boosted registration in Catholic schools and a lasting foundation of Catholicism. [4]
Under the dictatorships of William Tubman up to Samuel Doe, the Catholic Church continued its work in education and with the poor, as well as using its voice to denounce abuses and corruption under the different dictatorial regimes. The Catholic Church was seen as more trustworthy than other churches because its peculiar mode of financing and hierarchy did not leave it at the government's mercy. Its financing came "predominantly from giant German agencies which would simply cease contributing if previous grants were not scrupulously accounted for." Because it did not include high-ranking government officials, and because of the Catholic episcopal authority (prelates were not elected for just a few years), the Church benefited from a great freedom of expression, which it used wisely to denounce the government when necessary, using "machinery for public comment on national issues" with the Lenten or Advent Pastoral Letters. Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis in his first letter written in 1977, denounced corruption in these words:
"It is not too late to stop this ugly trend of corruption in our country. We are proud to call ourselves Christian, but can we honestly do so if corrupt practices are the normal things in our lives?" [5]
— First Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Francis, 1977
The Catholic Church also used its voice to condemn the systematic recourse to violence for political ends in Liberia. For instance, after Samuel Doe's coup in 1980, the Catholic Bishops were quick in bringing out a statement on "The Liberian Situation", emphasizing the role of the Church in the country's political life, "without usurping the role of the State and without favouring any party." The bishops reminded the State of its duty to protect and not breach the citizens' rights. The statement declared that:
"Violence has no place in a just government. Violence destroys the very fabric of society, foments hatred and brings about hostility where there should be love" [6]
— Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on "The Liberian Situation", 1980
During the 1989–1997 Liberian Civil War, many churches and religious centres were used as shelters. Priests and religious were also the target of violence and many were killed. [7] The Catholic Church in Liberia has on many occasions renewed its appeal for a War Crimes Court to be set up, "in an effort to enhance the justice system against individuals who commit atrocities against Liberians", as reconciliation must come with justice. [8]
In 2009, as part of its effort "to complement government and global efforts to create an increased awareness on the prevention of the HIV and AIDS pandemic", the Catholic Heath Secretariat of the Diocese of Gbarnga in Liberia renewed the local Church's commitment and perseverance by organizing "intense HIV/AIDs awareness and sensitization campaigns in Bong County". [9]
Monrovia is the capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liberia’s total population. Its Metro Area including Montserrado and Margibi counties largely being urbanized, was home to 2,225,911 inhabitants as of the 2022 census. As the nation's primate city, Monrovia is the country's economic, financial and cultural center; its economy is primarily centered on its harbor and its role as the seat of Liberian government.
The Kru, Krao, Kroo, or Krou are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to western Ivory Coast and eastern Liberia. European and American writers often called Kru men who enlisted as sailors or mariners Krumen. They migrated and settled along various points of the West African coast, notably Freetown, Sierra Leone, but also the Ivorian and Nigerian coasts. The Kru-speaking people are a large ethnic group that is made up of several sub-ethnic groups in Liberia and Ivory Coast. In Liberia, there are 48 sub-sections of Kru tribes, including the Jlao Kru. These tribes include Bété, Bassa, Krumen, Guéré, Grebo, Klao/Krao, Dida, Krahn people and Jabo people.
Gbarnga is the capital city of Bong County, Liberia, lying north east of Monrovia. During the First Liberian Civil War, it was the base for Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia. Cuttington College, a private, Episcopal-affiliated institution, is located near the town. Its campus was once home to the Africana Museum, which was destroyed during the civil war.
Bong is a county in the north-central portion of the West African nation of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has twelve districts. Gbarnga serves as the capital. The area of the county measures 8,772 square kilometres (3,387 sq mi). As of the 2022 Census, it had a population of 467,502, making it the third-most populous county in Liberia. The county was organized in 1964 and is important for its mining industry.
Vietnamese Martyrs, or in the current Roman Missal as Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions, also known as the Martyrs of Annam, Martyrs of Tonkin and Cochinchina, collectively Martyrs of Indochina, are saints on the General Roman Calendar who were canonized by Pope John Paul II. On June 19, 1988, thousands of Overseas Vietnamese worldwide gathered at the Vatican for the Celebration of the Canonization of 117 Vietnamese Martyrs, an event chaired by Monsignor Trần Văn Hoài. Their memorial is on November 24.
The Grebo or Glebo people are an ethnic group or subgroup within the larger Kru group of Africa, a language and cultural ethnicity, and to certain of its constituent elements. Within Liberia members of this group are found primarily in Maryland County and Grand Kru County in the southeastern portion of the country, but also in River Gee County and Sinoe County. The Grebo population in Côte d'Ivoire are known as the Krumen and are found in the southwestern corner of that country.
Edward Barron (1801–1854) was an Irish-born missionary bishop who led a Catholic mission to Liberia.
The Archdiocese of Monrovia is Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Liberia. It was elevated to an archdiocese in December 1981. It was initially established as the Prefecture Apostolic of Liberia in 1903, being separated from the Apostolic Vicariate of Sierra Leone. Until Saturday, February 12, 2011, the Archdiocese of Monrovia had been headed by Michael Kpakala Francis, who had been Monrovia's archbishop since its elevation in 1981, but Vatican Information Service (VIS) stated that he resigned that day for reasons of age and was succeeded immediately by his Coadjutor Archbishop, Lewis Jerome Zeigler.
The Saint Paul River is a river of western Africa. Its headwaters are in southeastern Guinea. Its upper portion in Guinea is known as the Diani River or Niandi River, and forms part of the boundary between Guinea and Liberia. It is known locally as the Du by the Gola people in Liberia.
The Diocese of Cape Palmas is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Liberia. Its episcopal see is Cape Palmas. The Diocese of Cape Palmas is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Monrovia.
William Wadé Harris was a Liberian Grebo evangelist, who preached in Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. He has been described as the "most extraordinary one man evangelical crusade that Africa has ever known" and is considered one of the originators of today's prosperity gospel.
The role of a Catholic catechist is to catechize the faith of the Catholic Church by both word and example. The Directory for Catechesis states that faith must be "known, celebrated, lived, and turned into prayer" in a personal and total encounter of the heart, mind and senses with Christ. St. John Paul II describes the aim of catechesis as putting "people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ."
New Kru Town is a northwestern coastal suburb of Monrovia, Liberia.
The Inter-territorial Catholic Bishops' Conference of The Gambia and Sierra Leone (ITCABIC) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Andrew Jagaye Karnley is a Liberian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2011, he has been the Bishop of Cape Palmas, a diocese with its seat in Harper. He was previously Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Monrovia from 2005 to 2011.
The United Methodist Church in Liberia is a member of the United Methodist Church, one of the world’s largest denominations. It is part of the Wesleyan Tradition, a methodical faith and practice started by John Wesley, whose father was a priest in the Anglican Church in England. The church today is found in almost all parts of the world including Europe, Asia, USA, and Africa. Liberia in Africa, is one of the many African countries where the United Methodist Church is established.
The Holy Spirit Cathedral or simply Cathedral of Gbarnga, is a religious building that is located in Gbarnga the second largest city in the African country of Liberia, in the Bong County, northeast of Monrovia city.
Lewis Jerome Zeigler was a Liberian Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Archbishop of Monrovia since 2011 until 2021. Zeigler was born in Harrisburg in 1944 and was ordained in 1974 before he was appointed in 2002 as the Bishop of Gbarnga. He was later named as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Monrovia in 2009 and ascended to head the diocese in 2011 after his predecessor died in office. Zeigler was a conservative prelate who opposed same-sex marriage and abortion in Liberia.
Francis Carroll S.M.A. was an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church from Northern Ireland who worked as a missionary priest and bishop in Liberia.
This article incorporates text from the entry Liberia in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910.