Apostolic Prefecture of Sahara Occidental
de Sahara Occidentali
Apostolic prefecture · Latin Church · Sahara Occidental, Western Sahara
Latin-rite apostolic prefecture covering the entire territory of Western Sahara, one of the most religiously homogeneous regions in the world, where the Catholic community is a few hundred mostly expatriate faithful in two parishes. Its principal church is the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in El-Aaiun (Laayoune). Fr. Mario Leon Dorado, O.M.I., has been apostolic prefect since June 2013.
The see
- Rank
- Apostolic prefecture
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 2 May 1976
- Latin
- de Sahara Occidentali
- Annuario code
- 001000489
The bishop
- Prefect Apostolic
- Mario Leon Dorado, O.M.I.
A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.
The cathedral
St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, El-Aaiun stands in Sahara Occidental, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.
On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.
History
In Western Sahara, the Catholic Church, particularly through the Latin Church, forms part of the worldwide communion under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Église Catholique de Laayoune, Place Alalaouiyine, B.P. 31, 70000 Laayoune, Sahara Occidental
- Telephone
- [0670]71.43.42
This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].