Advertisement

How Mauritania’s Tiny Catholic Population Has Stood Out in Humanitarian Work

Bishop Martin Albert Happe of Nouakchott with children who received first Holy Communion. Credit: Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International

Though small in numbers, the Catholic Church in the Northwestern African nation of Mauritania has carved out a space for itself in serving all, including non-Catholics.

In one of Africa’s poorest countries, which is nearly 100 percent Muslim, the Catholic Church has distinguished itself for providing support to the vulnerable, including migrants, young mothers, and children born with disabilities.

According to Bishop Martin Albert Happe of Nouakchott, the only Catholic Diocese in Mauritania, the Church serves everyone regardless of their religious background “to show that God loves all”.

“We Catholics are there for everyone,” Bishop Happe says in a Wednesday, October 4 report by Catholic Pontifical and charity foundation, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International.

In an attempt to describe the Northwestern African country’s tiny Catholic population, Bishop Happe says, “Only God knows how many Catholics there are in Mauritania,” and adds that the number of Catholic Christians who attended church services or had their children baptized was “no greater than in a parish in Western Europe.” 

Advertisement

He says that despite the small number, the demands of the Catholic Church in Mauritania are high. “As Catholics, we are there for all Mauritanians. We want to show through our way of living together and our activities that God loves all people.”

According to the German-born member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers/MAfr.), the biggest challenge that the Church in Mauritania is facing is the rapid growth of cities in the country. He says that in the past, most residents lived from livestock farming. 

“Drought periods have been increasing steadily since the 1970s. That's why more and more people are streaming into the cities,” he says, adding that many people now live in deep misery in congested cities.

The Church has become active in this field, Bishop Happe says, and explains, “Women religious have set up small stations on the outskirts of the city where they provide dairy products and offer hygiene training for mothers.”

The Catholic Church in Mauritania is also engaged in the care of children with disabilities, who are often hidden by the affected families and thus exposed to neglect. 

More in Africa

The 77-year-old Catholic Bishop, who has been at the helm of Nouakchott since his Episcopal Ordination in November 1995 reports that a support centre that the Church has set up for the children is transforming their lives.

“Little miracles happen there. Children who were unable to move can walk again because they are properly supported,” Bishop Happe, who has 50 years of service in Africa, first in Mali and for 28 years as the only Catholic Bishop in Mauritania, tells ACN.

In the October 4 report, ACN notes that Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world, and explains, “90 percent of the country lies in the Sahara. In former times, the inhabitants were nomads who lived from cattle breeding. But the desert continues to spread.”

According to the Catholic aid agency, many inhabitants of Mauritania have lost their herds and are migrating to the slums of the cities.

A Christian’s life is the hardest in the Islamic republic where, since 1960, Christian proselytizing is strictly forbidden. Changing religion is considered apostasy, punishable by death.

Advertisement

The U.S. government estimates that 99 percent of Mauritania’s 4 million people are Sunni Muslims, while Shia Muslims account for 1 percent of the country’s total population. There is a small number of non-Muslims, mostly Christians and a small number of Jews, all of them foreigners.

The constitution of Mauritania defines the country as an Islamic republic and recognizes Islam as the sole religion of its citizenry and the state. The country’s judiciary consists of a single system of courts that relies on a combination of sharia and secular legal principles.

The law prohibits apostasy. The criminal code requires a death sentence for any Muslim convicted of apostasy, but the government has never applied this provision since it was enacted in 2018. The criminal code also treats blasphemy as a capital offense and subject to the death penalty.

The Catholic Church in Mauritania, according to the ACN estimates, comprises about 4,500 believers in some six Parishes.

ACI Africa was founded in 2019. We provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, giving particular emphasis to the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See, to any person with access to the internet. ACI Africa is proud to offer free access to its news items to Catholic dioceses, parishes, and websites, in order to increase awareness of the activities of the universal Church and to foster a sense of Catholic thought and culture in the life of every Catholic.