Roman Catholicism in Albania

The Catholic Church in Albania is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.

According to some sources around 16%-17% of the population of Albania were Catholic, but in the 2011 census the percentage of Catholics was 10.03%. (Although this may be an undercount due to emigration; the Albanian Orthodox Church, the Greek minority, and the Bektashi community have all complained of being severely undercounted in the census.) Catholicism is strongest in the northwestern part of the country, which historically had the most readily available contact with, and support from, Rome and the Republic of Venice. Shkodër is the center of Roman Catholicism in Albania. More than 20,000 Albanian Catholics are located in Montenegro, mostly in Ulcinj, Bar, Podgorica, Tuzi, Gusinje and Plav. This region is considered part of the Malsia Highlander region of the seven Albanian Catholic tribes. The region was split from Ottoman Albania after the First Balkan War.

There are five dioceses in the country, including two archdioceses plus an Apostolic Administration covering southern Albania.

For four centuries, the Albanian Catholics have defended their faith with the aid of:

The Church legislation of the Albanians was reformed by Pope Clement XI, effecting a general ecclesiastical visitation (1763) by the Archbishop of Antivari, at the close of which a national synod was held. Its decrees were printed by Propaganda (1705), and renewed in 1803. In 1872, Pius IX caused a second national synod to be held at Scutari, for the renovation of the popular and ecclesiastical life.

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