Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus


The Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus is an apostolic administration of the Latin Church in the Catholic Church, established in 1993, with headquarters in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.
It is exempt, i.e. directly subject to the Holy See, and to its Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches, not part of any ecclesiastical province. Since 1996, Giuseppe Pasotto is the founding Apostolic Administrator of the Caucasus.

History

The Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus was erected on 30 December 1993, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II by the decree Quo aptius of the Congregation for Bishops. to pastorally cover Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, a territory split off from the Apostolic Administration of European Russia.
On 11 October 2000, it lost jurisdiction over Azerbaijan, which was transferred to the newly erected then Mission sui iuris of Baku, which soon was promoted to Apostolic prefecture.
It enjoyed papal visits by Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis.

Cathedral see

The cathedral episcopal see of the Apostolic Administration is the Notre-Dame of the Assumption in Tbilisi, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Territory

The Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus pastorally serves Catholics of the Roman Rite of the whole of Armenia and Georgia, and the partially recognized states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Catholics of Armenian rite of the Armenian Catholic Church, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches of the Catholic Church, are however within the Ordinariate of Eastern Europe, which is headquartered in Gyumri, Armenia.

Statistics

As per 2014, it pastorally served 50,000 Catholics in 11 parishes with 23 priests, 41 lay religious and 4 seminarians.

Episcopal ordinaries