The

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 ...

in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

is under the spiritual leadership of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The Catholic Church is said to have traditionally originated in the

in the 1st century AD, and was one of the major religions of the region from the 4th-century Byzantine reforms until the centuries following the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Islamic conquests The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...

of the 7th century AD. Ever since, its proportion has decreased until today's

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

tendency, mainly due to persecution by Islamic majority societies. In most Islamic countries, the Catholic Church is severely restricted or outlawed. Significant exceptions include

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. The largest group remaining in the Middle East is the

Maronite Church The Maronite Church is an Eastern Catholic ''sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The current head of the Maro ...

based in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, an

Eastern Catholic church The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

full communion Full communion is a communion or relationship of full agreement among different Christian denominations that share certain essential principles of Christian theology. Views vary among denominations on exactly what constitutes full communion, but ...

with the Pope and the rest of the Catholic Church. For specific nations (including Eastern Catholic churches), see: *

Catholic Church in Armenia The Catholic Church in Armenia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The 2011 census counted 13,843 Catholics in Armenia, representing about 0.46% of the total population. Catholics in Arme ...

Armenian Catholic Church , native_name_lang = hy , image = St Elie - St Gregory Armenian Catholic Cathedral.jpg , imagewidth = 260px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Saint Elias and Saint Gregory the Illuminat ...

* Catholic Church in Azerbaijan *

Catholic Church in Israel The Catholic Church in Israel is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, in full communion with the Holy See in Rome. The Catholic Church in Israel is divided into three main jurisdictions: the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Franciscan Cus ...

Catholic Church in Iran The Catholic Church in Iran is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are about 21,380 Catholics in Iran out of a total population of about 78.9 million. They follow the Chaldean, Arm ...

Catholic Church in Iraq There are over 300,000 Catholics living in Iraq, just 0.95% of the total population. The Catholics of Iraq follow several different rites, but most are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. There are 17 currently active dioceses and eparchies ...

Chaldean Catholic Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = Assyrian Church.png , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows Baghdad, Iraq , abbreviation = , type ...

Catholic Church in Egypt The Catholic Church in Egypt is considerably small as compared to the rest of the Christian population in Egypt, which is a significant minority among (mainly Sunni) Muslims. The Catholic population in Egypt is said to have begun during the Briti ...

Coptic Catholic Church The Coptic Catholic Church ( ar, الكنيسة القبطية الكاثوليكية; la, Ecclesia Catholica Coptorum) is an Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Catholic Church. Along with the Ethiopian Catholic Chur ...

Catholic Church in Jordan The Catholic Church in Jordan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are approximately 114,000 Catholics in Jordan or 1.9% of the Jordanian population. Catholics are divided in four Rit ...

Catholic Church in Kuwait The Catholic Church in Kuwait is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are over 140,000 Catholics in the country – representing about 6% of the population. There are no dioceses in the ...

Catholic Church in Lebanon The Catholic Church in Lebanon ( ar, الكنيسة الكاثوليكية في لبنان) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are about 1.8 million Catholics in Lebanon in total, the ...

Catholic Church in Oman The Catholic Church in Oman is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are approximately 55,000 Catholics in Oman (about 2% of the total population), mostly migrant workers expatriates. Oman ...

Catholic Church in the Palestinian territories The Catholic Church in Palestine is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are over 80,000 Catholics in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories (the Gaza Strip and the West Bank), mostl ...

Catholic Church in the United Arab Emirates The Catholic Church in the United Arab Emirates is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are nearly 1,000,000 expatriates in the UAE who are Catholics, representing around 11% of the t ...

Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia Catholicism in Saudi Arabia is officially barred from being practised, though Catholics are allowed into the country for temporary work. There is a large expatriate Filipino community in Saudi Arabia, many of whom are thought to be Catholics. Ther ...

Catholic Church in Syria The Catholic Church in Syria is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. There are 368,000 Catholics in Syria (and its refugee diaspora), approximately 2% of the total population. The Catholics of ...

Syriac Catholic Church The Syriac Catholic Church ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ, ʿĪṯo Suryayṯo Qaṯolīqayṯo, ar, الكنيسة السريانية الكاثوليكية) is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic Christianity ...

Melkite Catholic Church el, Μελχιτική Ελληνική Καθολική Εκκλησία , image = Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Damascus, Syria.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = , abbreviatio ...

Catholic Church in Turkey The Catholic Church in Turkey is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and the canonical leadership of the curia in Rome that is submitted to the Pope. Demographics In the 2000s, there are around 35,0 ...

Greek Byzantine Catholic Church The Greek Byzantine Catholic Church ( el, Ελληνική Βυζαντινή Καθολική Εκκλησία, ''Ellinikí Vizantiní Katholikí Ekklisía;'') or the Greek Catholic Church is a ''sui iuris'' Eastern Catholic particular church of ...

Catholic Church in Yemen The Catholic Church in Yemen is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Christians as a group make up 0.06% of Yemen’s population. Most of these are Orthodox Christians. In 2020, there were fo ...

In addition, the

Latin Church in the Middle East The Latin Church in the Middle East represents members of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the Middle East, notably in Turkey and the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan). ''Latin Catholics'' are subject to the Latin P ...

comprise

Latin Catholics , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

, called ''

Latins The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic. Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...

'' during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, subject to the

Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem ( la, Patriarchatus Latinus Hierosolymitanus) is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was originally established in 1099, wit ...

Overview

Christianity in the Middle East Christianity, which originated in the Middle East during the 1st century AD, is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the ...

is characterized by its diverse beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

. In 2010, Christians were estimated to make up 5% of the total Middle Eastern population, down from 20% in the early 20th century. This was before the devastating

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

s in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. Proportionally,

has the highest rate of Christians in the Middle East, where the percentage ranges between 39% and 40.5%, followed directly by

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

where most likely Christians (especially ethnic

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...

) account for about 10 percent, while in total the largest absolute figures. The majority of the Lebanese Christians consists of the

based in

, an

with the Pope and the rest of the

Demographics

The second largest Christian group in the Middle East are the Arabic-speaking

Maronites The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the largest ...

who are Catholics and number some 1.1–1.2 million across the Middle East, mainly concentrated within

. Many Maronites often avoid an Arabic ethnic identity in favour of a ''pre-Arab''

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n or

Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...

ite heritage, to which most of the Lebanese population belongs. In

are classified as ethnic

Arameans The Arameans ( oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; syc, ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ, Ārāmāyē) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people in the Near East, first recorded in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. The Aramean ...

and not Lebanese (together with smaller Aramaic-speaking Christian populations of Syriac Orthodox and Greek Catholics). The

Arab Christians Arab Christians ( ar, ﺍَﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, translit=al-Masīḥīyyūn al-ʿArab) are ethnic Arabs, Arab nationals, or Arabic-speakers who adhere to Christianity. The number of Arab Christians who l ...

, who are mostly descended from Arab Christian tribes, are significantly adherents of the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

. They number more than 1.5 million. Catholics of the

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

are small in numbers. Most Catholics are Maronites, Melkites, Catholic Syrians,

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...

and Chaldeans (from Iraq).

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

altogether number about 400,000. Arabized Melkite Catholics of the

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. Th ...

, who are usually referred to as Arab Christians, number over 1 million in the Middle East. They came into existence as a result of a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch over the election of a Patriarch in 1724. The

Eastern Aramaic The Eastern Aramaic languages have developed from the varieties of Aramaic that developed in and around Mesopotamia (Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest and southwest Iran), as opposed to western varieties of the Levant (modern ...

speaking Assyrians of

, southeastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, northwestern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and northeastern

, who number 2–3 million, have suffered both

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...

over the last few centuries such as the

Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish t ...

conducted by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

, leading to many fleeing and congregating in areas in the north of Iraq and the northeast of Syria, followed by the Genocide of the Islamic State in the 21st century. The great majority are Catholic Chaldeans. In Iraq, the number of Assyrians has declined to between 250,000 and 300,000 (from 0.8–1.4 million before the US invasion in 2003). Christians numbered between 800,000 and 1.2 million before 2003. During 2014, the Assyrian population of North Iraq collapsed due to the Muslim Jihadist persecution. A 2015 study estimates 483,500 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the Middle East, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.

Decline

The number of Middle Eastern Christians is dropping due to such factors as low birth rates compared with Muslims, disproportionately high emigration rates, and ethnic and

. In addition, political turmoil has been and continues to be a major contributor pressing indigenous Middle Eastern Christians of various ethnicities towards seeking security and stability outside their homelands. Recent spread of

Jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

and

Salafist The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generati ...

ideology, foreign to the tolerant values of the local communities in Syria and Egypt has also played a role in unsettling Christians' decades-long peaceful existence. In 2011, it was estimated that at the present rate, the Middle East's 12 million Christians would likely drop to 6 million by the year 2020.

References

{{Crusader states

Overview

Demographics

Decline

See also

References