TheCatholic Church in Libya is part of the worldwideCatholic Church (particularly theLatin Church), under the spiritual leadership of thePope inRome.
Among the Catholics areItalian Libyans andMaltese Libyans. Thousands of Filipino Catholic nurses moved to Libya during the 1980s and 1990s. The Italians were the majority of the Catholics in Libya until their expulsion in 1969 by ColonelGaddafi.
There are no dioceses in Libya, but there are four territorial jurisdictions - threeApostolic Administrations and oneApostolic Prefecture.
Christianity has been present in Libya sinceRoman times. SaintFrancis of Assisi brought his faith toTripoli in theMiddle Ages.
The Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of the Angels) in the Old City - Medina ofTripoli was founded in 1645 and, with the permission of the Sultan ofConstantinople, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was founded in Benghazi in 1858.
BeforeWorld War II the number of Catholics increased in Libya due to its status as anItalian colony, but the CatholicCathedral of Tripoli (built in the 1920s) was converted to amosque in the 1990s byMuammar Gaddafi's regime.[1] The other Catholic cathedral in Libya, theBenghazi Cathedral is under renovation as a stock exchange.
The Catholic population in Libya was estimated to number 100,000 in 2012 many of them are mostly ofItalian and Maltese ancestry.[2] In 2017 there were only 300 Catholics in Libya.[3] In 2023, it is believed that there are less than 20,500 Catholics in the country.[4]
There are two Catholic churches in Libya, the Church of San Francesco inTripoli (led until 2017 byGiovanni Innocenzo Martinelli) and the Maria Immacolata Parish Church inBenghazi, both of which are led byFranciscan priests from the Province of St. Paul the Apostle (Malta).[5] Each church is made up of "personal parishes" based on language, with each personal parish assigned its own priest.
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