Christians in Morocco constitute less than 1% of the country's population of 33,600,000 (2014 census). Most of the Christian adherents are Catholic and Protestants.
Christianity in Morocco appeared during the Roman times, when it was practiced by Christian Berbers in Roman Mauretania Tingitana, although it disappeared after the Islamic conquests. The Arabs started conquering the region of North Africa in the 7th century and in 698 Carthage was taken. Indigenous Christianity in North Africa effectively continued after the Muslim conquest until the early 15th century.
During the French and Spanish protectorates, Morocco had significant populations of European Catholic settlers; on the eve of independence, an estimated 470,000 Catholics resided in Morocco. Since independence in 1956, the European Christian population has decreased substantially, and many Christians left to France or Spain. Prior to independence, the European Catholic settlers had historic legacy and powerful presence. Independence prompted a mass exodus of the European Christian settlers; after series of events over 1959-1960 more than 75% of Christian settlers left the country.
In 2022, the U.S. State Department estimated the current number of Moroccan Christians as more than 40,000. Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Moroccan Christians at 20,000. The number of the Moroccans who converted to Christianity (most of them secret worshippers) are estimated between 8,000–50,000. Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity.
Criminal prohibitions
Article 3 of the Moroccan constitution "guarantees to all the free exercise of beliefs". However, the Moroccan criminal code prohibits conversions to other religions than Islam. Conversions of Muslims to Christianity (either proselytization or apostasy) often occurred during the colonial period, when laws against such conversions did not exist.
According to Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code, "anyone who employs incitements to shake the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion" incurs a sentence of three to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams. Any attempt to induce a Muslim to convert is illegal. Foreign missionaries either limit their proselytizing to non-Muslims or attempt to conduct their work discreetly. In spite of these limitations, a 2015 study estimates some 3,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background.
In 2023, Morocco was ranked as one of the 30 countries in the world where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.
History
Christianity in Morocco appeared during the Roman times, when it was practiced by Christian Berbers in Roman Mauretania Tingitana, although it disappeared after the Islamic conquests.
Early Christianity
According to tradition, the martyrdom of St. Marcellus took place on 28 July 298 at Tingis (Tangier). Since the Tetrarchy (Emperor Diocletian's reform of governmental structures in 296), Mauretania Tingitana became part of the Diocese of Hispaniae (a Latin plural) and hence in the Praetorian Prefecture of the Gauls (Mauretania Caesariensis was in the diocese of Africa, in the other pretorian prefecture within the western empire), and remained so until its conquest by the Vandals. Lucilius Constantius is recorded as governor (praeses) in the mid to late fourth century.
Christianity was introduced to the region in the 2nd century AD, and gained converts in the towns and among slaves as well as among Berber farmers. By the end of the 4th century, the Romanized areas had been Christianized, and inroads had been made among the Berber tribes, who sometimes converted en masse. Schismatic and heretical movements also developed, usually as forms of political protest. The area had a substantial Jewish population as well.
Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Donatism had its roots in the long-established Christian community of the Roman Africa province (present-day Tunisia, Morocco, the northeast of Algeria, and the western coast of Libya) in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus, Donatism flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries.