“Most Catholics in Albania became Catholic because of the rule of the Kingdom of Italy.”

In the north of Albania, where the missionary process had started early during Ottoman occupation and continued under the Austro-Hungarian protectorate, leading to the establishment of Jesuits and Franciscans, the Catholic Church's attention was concentrated until 1939.

However, in total the number of Uniates remained in modest figures.

4th Century: Almost the entire country is converted to the Christian faith; there are five episcopal sees, spread throughout all the territories. The Diocese of Shkodra is founded in the year 385.

Of the children, 50 per cent were Muslim, 40 per cent orthodox and 10 per cent Catholic, demonstrating that the regime did not use the camps to privilege Albania's Catholic minority. … A fascist inspector in Tirana warned that recruiters appeared to be placing an ‘imposition’ on families, thus inciting rumours that the Italians wanted to use the camps to convert Muslims to Catholicism.

And Italian aggression had included the introduction of Roman Catholicism. Thus all these religions were associated with the interference of outsiders. Albanians had throughout their history accepted the religions of the oppressors: sometimes this had been expedient, sometimes necessary for survival.

By about 1250, the lregions around Pulti, Arbeniya and Kandaviya had been fully re Catholicised through the activity of Dominicans, Benedictines and finally also Franciscans. … At the time of the Turkish invasion at the end of the 15th century, northern Albania can be regarded as being overwhelmingly Catholic, while mid and southern Albania were mainly Orthodox.

The last statistics before WWII are those of the Italian census conducted in 1942. According to its findings, 69.1% of Albanians were Muslim, 20.6% Orthodox and 10.3% Catholic.

Christianity was introduced in apostolic times. The northern part of the country remained faithful to Rome while the South broke from unity following the schism of 1054.

Albanian Catholics are descendents of those who embraced the Faith in the early centuries A.D.

Catholicism is most concentrated in the northwestern part of the country, which historically has had the easiest links with Rome and the Republic of Venice.

In the north of Albania, where the missionary process had started early during Ottoman occupation and continued under the Austro-Hungarian protectorate, leading to the establishment of Jesuits and Franciscans, the Catholic Church's attention was concentrated until 1939.

In the north of Albania, where the missionary process had started early during Ottoman occupation and continued under the Austro-Hungarian protectorate, leading to the establishment of Jesuits and Franciscans, the Catholic Church's attention was concentrated until 1939. Concrete measures were launched to establish Catholic missions in the southern part of the country in April 1939, right after the Italian invasion.

Development of Christianity in Albania. Christianity came to northern Albania from Rome in the form of the latin rite and to southern Albania from Greece in the form of the byzantine liturgy. … During over four centuries of Turkish rule most Albanians converted to Islam, especially in central Albania during the 17th and 18th centuries. … By the early 1900s, following the country's independence, the religious composition of Albania was estimated as 70 percent Muslim, 20 percent Orthodox, and 10 percent Roman Catholic.

In the north of Albania, where the missionary process had started early during Ottoman occupation and continued under the Austro-Hungarian protectorate, leading to the establishment of Jesuits and Franciscans, the Catholic Church's attention was concentrated until 1939. Concrete measures were launched to establish Catholic missions in the southern part of the country in April 1939, right after the Italian invasion.

By the end of the war, most of the surviving Catholic priests in Albania were of Italian origin, having been used by the fascist regime for the expansion of Italian culture and influence. … Following the Italian invasion, "the Catholic Church enjoyed a position of favour and influence throughout the Second World War".

The pre-Ottoman religious landscape was characterised by the substantial presence of Catholic groups in the northern part of the region, while in the south the orthodoxies represented the overriding majority among the Christian communities.

The paper reconsiders the development of decentralization/centralization dynamics during the Ottoman Empire, focusing on the Ottoman–Montenegrin borderlands of Northern Albania with particular reference to the Mirdite territory inhabited by Catholic tribes.

Alongside the division of Muslims, the goal was the unification of Christians through the uniatization of the Orthodox.

The Catholic clergy, which had previously received an annual subsidy of 158,000 crowns from Austria-Hungary after its departure, was forced in 1920 to accept the proposal of the Italian government that this amount be replaced with 158,000 lire.

The other body, the political one of the Kingdom of Albania, was used by the Holy See to create a union of all interested Catholic parties in the Western Balkans, to create a political and religious stronghold in the Balkans, which would not allow the Eastern rite to take over the entire Balkans. This union became even more organic and long-lasting when the Albanians understood it as an expression of their identity and, combining their will to be free from the Serbian kings with the desire to be recognized as an independent political power, they embraced the idea of seeing themselves as representatives of the Kingdom of Albania in the international political and religious arena of that time.

The Albanians of Italy significantly influenced the Albanian national movement in future centuries, and Albanian Franciscan priests, most of whom were descended from émigrés to Italy, played a significant role in the preservation of Roman-Catholicism in Albania's northern regions.

Catholicism is strongest in the northwestern part of the country, which historically had the most readily available contact with, and support from, Rome and the Republic of Venice.

According to his testimony, many of the Catholic Albanians had lived for decades under Ottoman rule as "hidden Christians" or laramans. Due to fear of Ottoman persecution and repression, they were forced to secretly practice their Catholic faith, while outwardly identifying as Muslims.

The spread of the Islamic faith among Albanians during this time also marked the shaping of their religious map, where the population of this geography now consisted of three major religious groups: Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, and Muslim.