Coptic Catholic Church

Not to be confused with Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

Coptic Catholic Church
Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
Classification	Eastern Catholic
Polity	Episcopal
Structure	Patriarchate
Pope	Francis
Primate	Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak
Associations	Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Region	Egypt, with communities in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America
Language	Alexandrian Rite
Headquarters	Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt, Cairo, Egypt
Congregations	166 (2016)
Members	174,902 (2016)
Ministers	243
Official website	coptcatholic.net

The Coptic Catholic Church is a church in full communion with the Pope in Rome instead of the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The church has about 162,000 members (as of 2007). Most of the members are in Egypt. Coptic Catholics are seen as a schism from the Coptic Orthodox Church. They left that church in order to come into full communion with the Catholic Church. The current Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria is Archbishop Antonios Naguib.

In 1990, Coptic Catholic sources estimated that there were about 10,000 followers in countries other than Egypt. These followers are under the care of local Latin Rite bishops. There are Coptic Catholic parishes in: Paris, Montréal, New York City, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Melbourne.

History

In 1741, a Coptic bishop in Jerusalem named Anba Athanasius became a Catholic. Pope Benedict XIV appointed him Vicar Apostolic of the small community (approximately 2,000 people) who also became Catholics. Although Athanasius returned to the Coptic Orthodox Church later, a line of Catholic Vicars Apostolic continued after him.

Other websites

• Coptic Catholic Church Archived 2009-07-12 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.coptcatholic.com (Arabic)
• Article on "Life in a Coptic Catholic Village" Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine