The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe is part of the worldwide
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, under the spiritual leadership of the
Pope of Rome
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...
,
Pope Leo XIV
Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...
.
According to the 2017 Inter Censal Demography Survey by the
Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency 8.0% of the population of
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
were
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
; overall, 84% of the country had a Christian background.
[Inter Censal Demography Survey 2017 Report]
Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (2017)
There were 1,145,000 Catholics in the country (about 9% of the total population) in 2005. By 2017, the censal survey had the number of Catholics at 1.2 million.
In 2020, Catholic numbers were up to 2 million people, with 600 priests and 1,000 nuns serving across 267 parishes.
Catholics and Culture website, retrieved 2023-08-08
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Pius Ncube
Pius Alick Mvundla Ncube (born 31 December 1946) served as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, until he resigned on 11 September 2007. Widely known for his human rights advocacy, Ncube was an outspoken critic of former Presid ...
, the former archbishop of Bulawayo
Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...
, was an outspoken critic of the then government of Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of th ...
, who was also a Catholic.
Dioceses
*Harare
Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...
** Chinhoyi
Chinhoyi, previously known as Sinoia during the colonial era, is a city in central northern Zimbabwe in the Makonde District. It has a population of 90,800 and is primarily a college town, although it was originally founded as an Italian group ...
** Gokwe
** Mutare
Mutare, formerly known as Umtali until 1982, is the capital and largest city in the province of Manicaland. It is the third most populated in Zimbabwe. Having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 ...
*Bulawayo
Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...
** Gweru
Gweru, originally known as Gwelo, is a city in central Zimbabwe. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high banks, in 1894 it became the site of a m ...
** Hwange
Hwange, originally known as Wankie, is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Hwange District, in Matabeleland North Province, in northwestern Zimbabwe, close to the international borders with Botswana and Zambia. It lies approximately , by road, sou ...
** Masvingo
Masvingo, known as Fort Victoria during the colonial period, is a city in southeastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city lies close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and clos ...
See also
* Religion in Zimbabwe
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, tran ...
* Christianity in Zimbabwe
Christianity is the largest religion practiced in Zimbabwe, accounted for more than 84% of the population.[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo () is the Metropolitan See for the ecclesiastical province of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
History
* January 4, 1931: Established as Mission “sui iuris” of Bulawayo from the Apostolic Prefecture of Sal ...]
* List of parishes in the Archdiocese of Harare
* List of Catholic dioceses in Zimbabwe
* Archbishop Marek Zalewski
External links
Catholic Hierarchy website, Statistics relating to the Catholic church in ZimbabweZimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference
References
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
{{Zimbabwe-stub