As head of an autonomous particular church, the Metropolitan Archeparch, currently Menghesteab Tesfamariam, is mentioned by name, after the Pope, in the liturgies celebrated within the suffragan eparchies of Barentu, Keren and Segheneyti.

[7][8] The Archeparchy of Asmara is the episcopal see of the single metropolitan of the Eritrean Catholic Church and has the following suffragan sees, all of which are daughter eparchies, having once been part of the then Eparchy of Asmara, which for a while covered the whole of Eritrea: In 1839 Saint Giustino de Jacobis, an Italian Vincentian priest, arrived in the area that is now Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.

In the following year, the governor of the colony expelled the remaining Vincentian priests, who were French, on the unfounded suspicion of having encouraged armed resistance.

As a result of his report, Father Kidanè-Maryam Cassà was appointed at first Pro-Apostolic Vicar for the Ethiopic-Rite Catholics and then, on 4 July 1930, bishop in charge of an independent Ordinariate of Eritrea.

[12][13][14][15] His official title was Ordinary for Ethiopic-Rite indigenous Catholics of Eritrea (Latin: Ordinarius pro catholicis indigenis Erythraeae aethiopici ritus).