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

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. 

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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.

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.

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