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Catholic Church in Togo

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Through Rome and World War I

There are approximately 1,483,000 million Catholics representing approximately 25 percent of the total population of 5,968,000. There are seven dioceses, including one archdiocese:

  • Lomé
    • Aného
    • Atakpamé
    • Dapaong
    • Kara
    • Kpalimé
    • Sokodé

History

The history of the Catholic Church in Togo began with the evangelization carried out by the missionaries of the Society of African Missions of Lyon starting in 1882; four years later the Togo mission was founded, but its founder, the priest Jeremiah Moran, was poisoned in 1886.

In 1892 the mission was entrusted to the Missionaries of the Divine Word, and made an apostolic vicariate in 1914. Because of the First World War, the Verbites, all Germans, were first interned and then expelled from the country. So evangelism passed again, in 1921, to the Fathers of the African missions: in 1930 there was the priestly ordination of the first Togolese.

On 15 September 1955 the ecclesiastical hierarchy was established and the country was divided into dioceses. The Togolese Caritas (Caritas togolaise) was founded in 1967. In 1987, it merged with the Development Coordination Office (Bureau de coordination pour le développement) to become the Charity Organisation for Integral Development - Caritas Togo. Caritas Togo is the official aid organisation of the Catholic Church in Togo.

In 1985, the Togolese Catholic Church received a pastoral visit from Pope John Paul II.

On 8 April 2014, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments confirmed Saint John Paul II as the patron saint of Togo.

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