The Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

(

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 Jo ...

)

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 admin ...

(pre-diocesan jurisdiction; originally an Independent Mission) for the Catholics of

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...

(

West Turkistan Russian Turkestan (russian: Русский Туркестан, Russkiy Turkestan) was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories, and was administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. It comprised t ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...

). It is exempt, i.e. directly subject to the Holy See (not part of any

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 sev ...

) and entitled to a

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 a ...

, but has no (pro-)cathedral see yet.

History

On 22 December 1997, the Holy See established the Mission ''sui iuris'' of Kyrguzstan 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 Chur ...

(shortly after promoted to Diocese of Karaganda, after ''missiones sui iuris'' were also split off for

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...

and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

, all in 1997). On 18 March 2006, the independent mission was promoted as

Ordinaries

; ''Ecclesiastical superior of the Mission sui iuris'' * Father Aleksandr Kan, S.J. (1997.12.22 – 2006.03.18) ; ''Apostolic Administrators'' *

Nikolaus Messmer Bishop Nikolaus Messmer, S.J. (19 December 1954 − 18 July 2016) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as the titular bishop of Carmeiano and the first Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan from 2006 until ...

, S.J.,

Carmeiano Carmiano (Salentino: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy. Carmiano is in the heart of the province of Lecce and Salento. It is located east of the Ionian Sea ( Porto Cesareo) and west ...

(2006.03.18 – 2016.07.18) * Janez Mihelčič, S.J. (2016.08.01 – 2017.08.29) * Anthony James Corcoran, S.J. (since 2017.08.29)

References

External links

Catholic Church of Kyrgyzstan

Apostolic administrations Catholic Church in Kyrgyzstan {{Kyrgyzstan-stub