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The Catholic Church is the fourth largest religious congregation in Bulgaria, after Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam and Protestantism. Its roots in the country date to the Middle Ages and are part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
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In the country's 2021 census, 0.7% of the population (approximately 49,000 people) stated that they were Catholic. [1] This compared to 48,945 people in 2011, [2] 43,811 in 2001 and 53,074 in 1992.
The vast majority of the Catholics in Bulgaria in 2001 were ethnic Bulgarians and the rest belonged to a number of other ethnic groups such as Croatians, Italians, Arabs and Germans.
Bulgarian Catholics live predominantly in the regions of Svishtov and Plovdiv and are mostly descendants of the heretical Christian sect of the Paulicians, which converted to Catholicism in the 16th and 17th centuries. The largest Catholic Bulgarian town is Rakovski in Plovdiv Province. Ethnic Bulgarian Catholics known as the Banat Bulgarians also inhabit the Central European region of the Banat. Their number is unofficially estimated at about 12,000, although Romanian censuses count only 6,500 Banat Bulgarians in the Romanian part of the region.
Bulgarian Catholics are descendants of three groups. The first were converted Paulicians [ citation needed ] from the course of the Osam river (between Stara Planina and the Danube) and around Plovdiv are the second (and largest) group[ citation needed ], while the third (and most limited) one is formed by more recent Eastern Orthodox converts.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, most Catholics lived in the province of Plovdiv (19,502 Catholics), followed by the city of Sofia (5,572 Catholics) and the provinces of Pleven (5,164 Catholics) and Veliko Tarnovo (3,276 Catholics)
| Municipality | Catholic population 2011 [3] | % of those who answered | % of the total population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rakovski Municipality | 11,400 | 53.2% | 43.2% |
| Sofia | 5,572 | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| city of Plovdiv | 3,681 | 1.4% | 1.1% |
| Kaloyanovo Municipality | 2,630 | 23.5% | 22.1% |
| Svishtov Municipality | 2,396 | 7.5% | 5.6% |
| Belene Municipality | 1,872 | 31.9% | 18.1% |
| Levski Municipality | 1,504 | 11.0% | 7.5% |
| Varna Municipality | 1,203 | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| Pleven Municipality | 1,173 | 1.0% | 0.9% |
| Bulgaria as whole | 48,945 | 0.8% | 0.7% |
Although the presence of Catholicism existed during the reign of Roman Empire in Balkan Peninsula, Catholic missionaries first tried to convert the Bulgarians during the reign of Tsar Boris I in the middle of the 9th century. They were unsuccessful, and Boris I led the Bulgarians in their conversion to Eastern Christianity. In 1204 the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan (1197–1207) formed a short-lived union between the Catholic Church and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a political tactic to balance the religious power of the Byzantine Empire. The union ended when the Bulgarian Patriarchate was reestablished in 1235 during the council of Lampsacus.
Nonetheless, Catholic missionaries renewed their interest in Bulgaria during the 16th century, after the Council of Trent, when they were aided by merchants from Dubrovnik on the Adriatic. In the next century, Catholic missionaries converted most of the Paulicians, the remainder of a once-numerous heretical Christian sect, to Catholicism. Many believed that conversion would bring aid from Western Europe in liberating Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.
By 1700, however, the Ottomans began persecuting Catholics and preventing their Orthodox subjects from converting.
After Bulgaria became independent, the Catholic Church again tried to increase its influence by opening schools, colleges, and hospitals throughout the country, and by offering scholarships to students who wished to study abroad. Bulgarian Knyaz Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was himself Catholic and supported the Vatican in these efforts. The papal nuncio Angelo Roncalli, who later became Pope John XXIII, played a leading role in establishing Catholic institutions in Bulgaria and in establishing diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and the Vatican in 1925.
The communist era was a time of great persecution for Catholics, nominally because Catholicism was considered the religion of fascism. Bulgarian communists also deemed Catholicism a foreign influence. Under communist rule, Catholic priests were charged with following Vatican orders to conduct antisocialist activities and help opposition parties. In 1949 foreign priests were forbidden to preach in Bulgaria, and the papal nuncio was forbidden to return to Bulgaria. Relations between the Vatican and Bulgaria were severed at that time. During the "Catholic trials" of 1951-52, sixty priests were convicted of working for Western intelligence agencies and collecting political, economic, and military intelligence for the West.; [4] [5] Four priests were executed on the basis of these charges. In the early 1950s, the property of Catholic parishes was confiscated, all Catholic schools, colleges, and clubs were closed, and the Catholic Church was deprived of its legal status. Only nominal official toleration of Catholic worship remained.
Like the practitioners of the other faiths, Catholics in Bulgaria have enjoyed greater religious freedom after the end of communist rule in 1989. Bulgaria reestablished relations with the Vatican in 1990, and the Bulgarian government invited Pope John Paul II to visit Bulgaria. The visit was carried from 23 to 26 May 2002 and was the first visit of a Catholic pope in the country.
In 2022 the Church opened its own radio station. Ave Maria radio was inaugurated with the presence of cardinal Leonardo Sandri, in Sofia. [6]
There is no ecclesiastical province for Catholics of the Latin Church (using the Roman Rite), nor suffragans of a neighbouring one, but only two exempt dioceses (i.e. directly subject to the Holy See):
Aside from the Latin Church, there is also the sui iuris Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church (for Bulgarian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite), which follows Bulgarian ecclesiastical traditions and uses Bulgarian language, established in 1926 and taking after several organisations created in the late 19th-century, most importantly the Macedonian Apostolic Vicariate of the Bulgarians.
It consists solely of a single eparchy, which was previously an apostolic exarchate and elevated to the rank of an eparchy in 2019. The eparchy is exempt (i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See):
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the second-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the Latin Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris of the Catholic Church. It accepts the leadership of the bishop of Rome, and is therefore in full communion with the universal Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the 22 other Eastern Catholic Churches. The Armenian Catholic Church is regulated by Eastern canon law, summed up in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
The Romanian Greek Catholic Church or Romanian Church United with Rome is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church, in full union with the Catholic Church. It has the rank of a Major Archiepiscopal Church and it uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language. It is part of the Major Archiepiscopal Churches of the Catholic Church that are not distinguished with a patriarchal title.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction based in Bulgaria. It is the first medieval recognised patriarchate outside the Pentarchy and the oldest Slavic Orthodox church, with some 6 million members in Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2 million members in a number of other European countries, Asia, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. It was recognized as autocephalous in 1945 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Belene is a town in Pleven Province, Northern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Belene Municipality. The town is situated on the right bank of the Danube river, close to the town of Svishtov.
The Catholic Church in Georgia, since the 11th-century East–West Schism, has been composed mainly of Latin Church Catholics; a very large community of the Armenian Catholic Church has existed in Georgia since the 18th century.
Paulicianism was a medieval Christian sect which originated in Armenia in the 7th century. Followers of the sect were called Paulicians and referred to themselves as Good Christians. Little is known about the Paulician faith and various influences have been suggested, including Gnosticism, Marcionism, Manichaeism and Adoptionism, with other scholars arguing that doctrinally the Paulicians were a largely conventional Christian reform movement unrelated to any of these currents.
The Banat Bulgarians, also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics and Bulgarians Paulicians or simply as Paulicians, are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which since the Chiprovtsi Uprising in the late 17th century began to settle in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. Unlike most other Bulgarians, they are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians and Roman Catholics from modern northern and northwestern Bulgaria.
The Catholic Church in Albania is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
The Catholic Church in Ukraine is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Catholics make up 10% of the population of Ukraine.
The Italian Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Italy, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome, under the Conference of Italian Bishops. The pope serves also as Primate of Italy and Bishop of Rome. In addition to Italy, two other sovereign states are included in Italian dioceses: San Marino and the Vatican City. There are 225 dioceses in the Catholic Church in Italy, see further in this article and in the article List of Catholic dioceses in Italy.
The Catholic Church in Haiti is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope, the Curia in Rome and the Conference of Haitian Bishops.
The Catholic Church in North Macedonia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome and is one of the major religious communities that exist on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia. Catholic believers from North Macedonia mostly include Albanians, Macedonians and Croats and are most concentrated in the Skopje Statistical Region and the Southeastern Statistical Region of North Macedonia.
The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church is a sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church based in Bulgaria. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. The Church's liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Bulgarian language. The Church is organised as a single eparchy — the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sofia.
Armenians in Bulgaria are the fifth largest minority, after Russians, in the country, numbering 6,552 according to the 2011 census, down from 10,832 in 2001, while Armenian organizations estimate up to 80,000. Armenians have lived in the Balkans since no later than the 5th century, when they moved there as part of the Byzantine cavalry. Since then, the Armenians have had a continuous presence in Bulgarian lands and have often played an important part in the history of Bulgaria from early Medieval times until the present.
Religion in Bulgaria has been dominated by Christianity since its adoption as the state religion in 864. The dominant form of the religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity within the fold of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. During the Ottoman rule of the Balkans, Islam spread to the territories of Bulgaria, and it remains a significant minority today. The Catholic Church has roots in the country since the Middle Ages, and Protestantism arrived in the 19th century; both of them remain very small minorities. Today, a significant part of the Bulgarians are not religious, or believers who do not identify with any specific religion, and Bulgaria has been the cradle of some new religions, notably the Neo-Theosophical movement of Dunovism.
Romanian Catholics, like Catholics elsewhere, are members of the Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Curia in Rome. The administration for the local Latin Church is centered in Bucharest, and comprises two archdioceses and four other dioceses. It is the second largest Romanian denomination after the Romanian Orthodox Church, and one of the 18 state-recognized religions. As of 2021, 5.2% of Romanians identified as Catholic. The 2012 census indicated that there were 741,276 Romanian citizens adhering to the Latin Church. Of these, the largest groups were Hungarians, Romanians, Germans and Slovaks.
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The Bulgarian Catholic Eparchy of Saint John XXIII of Sofia is an eparchy of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church which is a sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church based in Bulgaria. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. The Church is organised as a single eparchy. Its liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Bulgarian language. It was elevated from an Apostolic Exarchate to a full eparchy by Pope Francis on 12 October 2019. The cathedral church of the eparchy is the Cathedral of the Dormition, in Bulgaria's capital Sofia.
The Cathedral of the Dormition, also called Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Catholic church of Bulgarian (Byzantine) rite that is the mother church of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sofia, located in the city of Sofia, in Bulgaria.
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