Roman Catholicism in Thailand

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Catholic Church in Thailand is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. By the information of Catholic Hierarchy Catalog, there are 292,000 Catholics in Thailand, which represents 0.46% of the total population. There are 10 dioceses with 436 parishes and 662 priests. The first historical record of an attempt to introduce Christianity to Thailand is owed to John Peter Maffei who stated that about 1550 a French Franciscan, Bonferre, hearing of the great kingdom of the Peguans and the Siamese in the East, went on a Portuguese ship from Goa to Cosme (Peguan), where for three years he preached the Gospel, but without any result.