Catholic Intelligence

Archdiocese of Teheran-Ispahan

Teheranen(sis)-Hispahanen(sis) Latinorum

The Latin Archdiocese of Tehran-Isfahan traces to a mission established by Italian Dominicans at Isfahan in 1629, was elevated to an archdiocese on 1 July 1910, and was renamed from Isfahan of the Latins to Tehran-Isfahan by Pope Francis on 8 January 2021. It serves the small Latin-rite community across Tehran, Isfahan and Tabriz from the Cathedral of the Consolata in Tehran. Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu, O.F.M. Conv., appointed 8 January 2021, was created a cardinal in December 2024.

The see

Rank
Archdiocese immediately subject to the Holy See
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
1629
Latin
Teheranen(sis)-Hispahanen(sis) Latinorum
Annuario code
001001684

The see in figures

Extent
1,628,771 km²

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Archbishop
Dominique Joseph Mathieu, O.F.M. Conv.

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

Cathedral of the Consolata, Tehran stands in Teheran-Ispahan, 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

The Archdiocese of Tehran-Isfahan of the Latins (Latin: Archidioecesis Teheranensis-Hispahanensis Latinorum; Persian: اسقف‌نشین کاتولیک رومی تهران-اصفهان, romanized: Ōsghof-neshin Kātolik Romi Tehrān-Esfahān) serves the Latin Catholic faithful of Iran. It carried the name Archdiocese of Isfahan of the Latins until 8 January 2021, when Pope Francis gave the jurisdiction its present title. Beyond a small number of Latin Rite locals, Iran's Catholics are mostly foreigners resident in the country, with the majority belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church alongside a small Armenian Catholic diocese.

How to reach it

Chancery
Consolata Church, P.O. Box 11343-34711, 70 Nofel Loshato St., Tehran, Iran

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.

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Sources

Wikipedia · GCatholic

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].