Catholic Church in Iran

The Catholic Church in Iran is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Catholicism spread in the country through missionaries and the migration or resettlement of Eastern Catholic communities since the Middle Ages. The seventeenth century saw stronger missionary efforts by the Latin Church, but most of it ceased by the end of the eighteenth century and only from the mid-nineteenth century onwards did the Latin Church establish a new presence. Today, there are about 22,000 Catholics in Iran, most of which are Chaldean Catholic, but with also Armenian Catholic and Latin Catholic communities present.