Roman Catholicism in South Africa

Roman Catholicism In South Africa

The Roman Catholic Church in South Africa is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. There are 26 dioceses and archdioceses, plus an apostolic vicariate.

There are approximately 3.3 million Catholics in South Africa - just over 6% of the total population. 2.7 million are of various black African ethnic groups, such as Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho. Coloured and white South Africans each account for roughly 300,000. Most white Catholics are English speaking, and the majority are descended from Irish immigrants. Many others are Portuguese settlers who left Angola and Mozambique after they became independent in the 1970s, or their children. The proportion of Catholics among White Afrikaans speakers, or South African Asians, who are mainly of Indian descent, is extremely small.

Read more about Roman Catholicism In South Africa:  Catholic Church and Apartheid, People, Education, Sources

Famous quotes containing the words roman, catholicism, south and/or africa:

    “The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.”
    —Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

    “Protestantism has the method of Jesus with His secret too much left out of mind; Catholicism has His secret with His method too much left out of mind; neither has His unerring balance, His intuition, His sweet reasonableness. But both have hold of a great truth, and get from it a great power.”
    —Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

    “The South Wind is a baker.”
    —Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931)

    “I thought that when they said Atlantic Charter, that meant me and everybody in Africa and Asia and everywhere. But it seems like the Atlantic is an ocean that does not touch anywhere but North America and Europe.”
    —Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)