Bishop of Asmara

Archeparchy of Asmara Archieparchia Asmarensis
Kidane Mehret Cathedral, Asmara Cathedral of the archeparchy
Location
Country	Eritrea
Ecclesiastical province	Central
Statistics
Area	53,183 km2 (20,534 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2012) 3,934,000 67,314 (1.7%)
Parishes	58
Information
Denomination	Eritrean Catholic Church
Rite	Alexandrian Rite
Established	4 July 1930 (87 years ago)
Cathedral	Kidane Mehret Cathedral, Asmara
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Archeparch	Menghesteab Tesfamariam, M.C.C.I.
Map

The Eritrean Catholic Archeparchy of Asmara, officially the Archeparchy of Asmara (Latin: Archieparchia Asmarensis or Latin: Metropolitana Ecclesia Asmarensis), more informally Asmara of the Eritreans, is the metropolitan see of the Metropolitan Eritrean Catholic Church, a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church whose territory corresponds to that of the State of Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It depends on the Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

As head of an autonomous particular church, the Metropolitan Archeparch, currently Menghesteab Tesfamariam, is mentioned by name, after the Pope, in the liturgies celebrated within the suffragan eparchies of Barentu, Keren and Segheneyti.

The Eritrean Catholic Church, like the Ethiopian Catholic Church, from which it was separated in 2015, uses in its liturgy the Ethiopic variant of the Alexandrian Rite in the Ge'ez language. It is the Eastern Catholic counterpart of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which was granted in 1993, and is headed by an Orthodox Patriarch, who also is based in the Eritrean capital. Since the Eritrean Catholic Church is a metropolitanate, not a patriarchal or major archiepiscopal Church, the power of its metropolitan and council of hierarchs is limited to its own territory, which covers all and only Eritrea, (East Africa or, more precisely, the Horn of Africa). Faithful outside of Eritrea are immediately subject to the Pope.