TheCatholic Church in theMiddle East is under the spiritual leadership of thePope inRome. The Catholic Church is said to have traditionallyoriginated in theMiddle East in the 1st century AD, and was one of the major religions of the region from the 4th-centuryByzantine reforms until the centuries following theArabIslamic conquests of the 7th century AD. Ever since, its proportion has decreased until today'sdiaspora tendency, mainly due to persecution by Islamic majority societies.
The largest group remaining in the Middle East is theMaronite Church based inBeirut,Lebanon, anEastern Catholic church infull communion with the Pope and the rest of the Catholic Church.
For specific nations (including Eastern Catholic churches), see:
In addition, theLatin Church in the Middle East compriseLatin Catholics, calledLatins during theMiddle Ages, subject to theLatin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
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Christianity in the Middle East is characterized by its diverse beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of theOld World. In 2010, Christians were estimated to make up 5% of the total Middle Eastern population, down from 20% in the early 20th century.[1] This was before the devastatingcivil wars inSyria andIraq.
Proportionally,Cyprus has the highest rate of Christians in the Middle East, where the percentage ranges between 76% and 78%.Lebanon has the second highest rate of Christians in the Middle East, where the percentage ranges between 39% and 40.5%, followed directly byEgypt where most likely Christians (especially ethnicCopts) account for about 10 percent, while in total the largest absolute figures.
The majority of the Lebanese Christians consists of theMaronite Church based inBeirut, anEastern Catholic church infull communion with the Pope and the rest of theCatholic Church.
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The second largest Christian group in the Middle East are the Arabic-speakingMaronites who are Catholics and number some 1.1–1.2 million across the Middle East, mainly concentrated withinLebanon. Many Maronites often avoid an Arabic ethnic identity in favour of apre-ArabPhoenicianorCanaanite heritage, to which most of theLebanese population belongs. InIsrael,Maronites are classified as ethnicArameans and notLebanese (together with smaller Aramaic-speaking Christian populations of Syriac Orthodox and Greek Catholics).
TheArab Christians, who are mostly descended from Arab Christian tribes, are significantly adherents of theEastern Orthodox Church. They number more than 1.5 million. Catholics of theLatin Church are small in numbers. Most Catholics are Maronites, Melkites, Catholic Syrians,Armenians and Chaldean CatholicAssyrians (from Iraq).Protestants altogether number about 400,000. ArabizedMelkite Catholics of theByzantine Rite, who are usually referred to as Arab Christians, number over 1 million in the Middle East. They came into existence as a result of aschism within the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch over the election of a Patriarch in 1724.
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.[2]
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 andreligious persecution. 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 ofJihadist andSalafist 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.[3] 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.[4]
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