The Holy See and the Republic of Chad have signed an agreement regarding the legal status of the Catholic Church in Chad.
The agreement, made yesterday in the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country’s capital city of Yamena, was signed on behalf of the Holy See by Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, apostolic nuncio in Chad, and for the Republic of Chad by Moussa Faki Mahamat, minister of Foreign Affairs and African Integration.
Being comprised of eighteen articles, the agreement will come into effect upon exchange of the instruments of ratification.
According to the Vatican, it also recognizes the legal personality of the Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical institutions and, in establishing a legal framework for the relations between the Church and the State, affirms the social value of their collaboration for the promotion of the dignity of the human person in order to build a more just and peaceful society.
There are some 900,000 Roman Catholics living in Chad, comprising nearly 10% of the country’s population. </p>
