Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum February 1993 in enjoyed a Papal visit from Pope John Paul II. The cathedral see of the Archbishop is St. Matthew's Cathedral, Khartoum. Its ecclesiastical province comprises the Metropolitan's own archdiocese and one remaining suffragan see : Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum () is the Latin Metropolitan archbishopric with See in national capital Khartoum whose Ecclesiastical province, including the suffragan Obeid, covers Sudan. On the 3 of April in 1846 it was established by pope Gregory XVI as Apostolic Vicariate of Central Africa, on vast territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt
Siege of Khartoum injustices caused by the Egyptian colonial administration: arbitrary imprisonments were cancelled, torture instruments were destroyed, and taxes were remitted. To enlist the support of the population, Gordon legalised slavery, despite the fact that he himself had abolished it a few years earlier. This decision was popular in Khartoum, but caused controversy in Britain. Gordon was determined to "smash up the Mahdi". He requested that a regiment of Turkish soldiers be sent to Khartoum as Egypt was still nominally a province of the Ottoman Empire. When this was refused, Gordon asked for a unit of Indian Muslim troops and later for