Catholic Church in Jordan
The Catholic Church in Jordan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
In 2023, Christians made up 2.1% of Jordan's population. Of these half, or 1.06% of the country's population were Catholics.
Catholics are divided in five Rites:
- 80,000 Latin Catholics
- 32,000 Melkite [Greek Catholic Church|Melkite Catholics]
- 1,500 Syriac [Catholic Church|Syrian Catholics]
- 1,000 Maronite Catholics
- 500 Armenian Catholics
The whole of the country for all Melkites forms a single Melkite [Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Petra and Philadelphia in Amman|Archeparchy].
Jordanian Catholics belonging to the Greek Catholic churches use the Melkite Rite, these are referred to as "Roum Catholiks" in Jordan (Roum or Rome referring to Byzantine, while those following the standard rites of the Catholic Church are referred to as "Lateen" and belong to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
An important Catholic charity in Jordan is Caritas Jordan.
Parishes
There are 32 Latin Catholic parishes in Jordan in 2023.Melkite Greek Catholic Church has 28 parishes, Syrian Catholics have 3 parishes, Maronite Catholics have 2 parishes and Armenian Catholics have 1 parish. There are 66 Catholic parishes in all Jordan, belonging to five Catholic traditions.
Papal visits
There have been 4 papal visits so far to Jordan:Pope Paul VI visited Jordan in 1964, as part of the first papal pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Pope John Paul II visited Jordan in 2000.
Pope Benedict XVI visited Jordan in 2009.
Pope Francis visited Jordan in 2014.