The

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

( la, Archidioecesis Sanctae Mariae in Astanansis) is a Latin archdiocese of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

episcopal see is the Marian Cathedral of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, in the Kazakh national capital

. The founding and only Apostolic administrator

Tomasz Peta Tomasz Bernard Peta (russian: Томаш Бернард Пэта; born on 20 August 1951 in Inowrocław, Poland) is the current Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Mary in the city of Astana, and the President of the Bisho ...

was appointed the first Archbishop of Mary Most Holy in Astana by John Paul II on May 17, 1999.

History

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

erected it as the

Apostolic Administration 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 (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

of Astana on July 7, 1999, on territory split off from the then

Apostolic Administration of Kazakhstan Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...

(which lost more territories and became the diocese of Karaganda and soon after, unusually, daughter diocese Astana's suffragan), and visited it in September 2001. The same pope promoted it to the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana on May 17, 2003.

Province

Its

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of seve ...

comprises the Metropolitan's own archdiocese and the following suffragan jurisdictions : * Roman Catholic Diocese of Karaganda (its parent diocese) * Roman Catholic Diocese of Santissima Trinità in Almaty. * Apostolic Administration of Atyrau (a pre-diocesan type of jurisdiction which normally remains exempt, i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See)

Ordinaries of Astana

(all Roman Rite, so far European Latin missionaries) ;''Apostolic Administrator of Astana'' *

(7 Jul 1999 – 17 May 2003),

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox ...

Benda, Albania Benda is an Ancient city and former diocese in present Albania, now a Latin Catholic titular see. The present ethnographic region has taken its name from it. In the XVI-XVII centuries, it was composed of the center Moisit and the villages of Shë ...

(15 Feb 2001 – 17 May 2003) ;''Metropolitan Archbishops of Astana'' *

(17 May 2003 – ... ), also President of Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan (May 2003 – ... )

Sources and external links

GCatholic.org, with incumbent biography links

Culture in Astana Maria Santissima in Astana

1999 establishments in Kazakhstan {{Asia-RC-diocese-stub

History

Province

Ordinaries of Astana

See also

Sources and external links