Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman explained

Jurisdiction:Metropolitan Archdiocese
Goa and Daman
Latin:Archidioecesis Goanae et Damanensis
Image Alt:Se cathedral
Country: India
Province:Goa and Daman
Coordinates:15.5022°N 73.9117°W
Rite:Latin Rite
Cathedral:Cathedral of St Catherine of Alexandria in Old Goa
Area Km2:4,194
Population:1,818,000[1]
Population As Of:2013
Catholics:640,616
Parishes:167
Priests:701
Catholics Percent:35.2
Patron:St Joseph Vaz
Metro Archbishop:Filipe Neri Ferrão
Auxiliary Bishops:Simião Purificação Fernandes - Bishop Elect
Suffragan:Diocese of Sindhudurg
Website:https://archgoadaman.com/
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Language:Konkani, English, Marathi, Portuguese,[2] Gujarati, Hindi

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman (Latin: Archidioecesis Goanae et Damanensis, Gõy ani Damanv Mha-Dhormprant, Portuguese: Arquidiocese de Goa e Damão) encompasses the Goa state and the Damaon territory in the Konkan region, by the west coast of India. The ecclesiastical province of Goa and Damaon includes a suffragan diocese, the Sindhudurg Diocese that comprises the Malvani areas of (central Konkan). The Archbishop of Goa also holds the titles of Primate of the East and Patriarch of the East Indies, also hold the title of the Syrian Catholic Primate of the Archdiocese of Cranganore. The beginnings lie in the Padroado system of Portuguese Goa and Damaon, in the early 1900s the primatial see was transferred back to the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as the Padroado system of the Indo-Portuguese era was being dismantled.

It is the oldest bishopric of the Latin Rite of worship in terms of activity in the East Indies, with its origins linked to the Portuguese discoveries, and their subsequent arrival at the St Mary's islands and Calicut, on the coast of the Malabar region.

The current Metropolitan Archbishop and Patriarch of the East Indies is Filipe Neri Ferrão.[3]

Special churches

Territory and statistics

The archdiocese consists of the State of Goa and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in India.[4] As of 2014, it pastorally served 641,231 Catholics (31.0% of 2,067,200 total) on 4,194 km2 in 167 parishes and 124 missions with 715 priests (410 diocesan, 305 religious), 1,503 lay religious (538 brothers, 965 sisters) and 80 seminarians.

Ecclesiastical province

The Metropolitan has a single suffragan see:

History

After the Portuguese conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510, King Manuel I built a chapel there in honour of St. Catherine, named patron of the city in 1518. Christians in the region were given into the charge of OP, the Franciscan bishop of the titular see of Laodicea. He governed until 1527 when he was succeeded by Dom OFM, the Franciscan titular bishop of Aureopolis, from 1529 to 1535.[5]

King John III of Portugal commissioned the construction of a cathedral in Goa and Pope Clement VII founded the Diocese of Goa on 31 January 1533, with the papal bull titled Romani Pontificis Circumspectio.[6] The jurisdiction of the new diocese at the time stretched from the Cape of Good Hope to China and Japan.[7] On 3 November 1534 the creation of the diocese was confirmed by the bull of Pope Paul III, since Clement VII's death had prevented the publication of its establishment. The diocese was originally a suffragan of the diocese of Funchal.

At the request of King Sebastian, on 4 February 1557 Pope Paul IV separated the Goan diocese from the ecclesiastical province of Lisbon and raised it to a metropolitan archdiocese, with the suffragan dioceses of Cochin and Malacca.[8] In the course of time other dioceses were included in the metropolitan area of Goa: Macau, Funai in Japan, Cranganore and Meliapor in India, Nanjing and Beijing in China, and Mozambique in Africa. Daman in India is still included in Goa.[9]

With the brief of 13 December 1572 Pope Gregory XIII granted the archbishop of Goa the title of Primate of the East.[10] [11] This is because the diocese of Goa was the first diocese of the Padroado in Asia. By 1857, Goa had gained several suffragan dioceses in the Indian subcontinent but retained only Macau and Mozambique outside that geographical area.[12]

On 23 January 1886, Pope Leo XIII, through the bull Humanae Salutis Auctor, invested the archbishop of Goa with the honorary title of Patriarch of the East Indies. With the same bull, the diocese of Daman was established, to which was attached the title of the Archdiocese of Cranganore, that had been suppressed by the 24 April 1838 Multa praeclare decree of Pope Gregory XVI. These provisions had already been made in the concordat between the Holy See and Portugal on 23 June 1886.[13] The honorary title of patriarch recognised the primacy of honour of the archbishop of Goa among all the bishops of the East and the historical vastness of his jurisdiction, at a time when his jurisdiction was reduced. He also enjoyed the privilege of presiding over all the synods of the East Indies

When the diocese of Daman was dissolved on 1 May 1928 with Inter Apostolicam, the title of Cranganore was attached to the Goa archdiocese. Thus, the archbishop of Goa came to be the titular archbishop of Cranganore.

In 1940, Dili (in East Timor) was elevated to a diocese and placed as suffragan under Goa; Mozambique was in the same year spun off from the metropolitan archdiocese. In 1953 the archdiocese of Goa lost the suffragan dioceses of Cochin, Meliampor and Canara following the ecclesiastical territorial reorganisation of the new Indian state.

On 19 December 1961, the Indian Union annexed the territories of Goa, and Daman and Diu.[14] The following year the Patriarch Archbishop José Vieira Alvernaz left the territory. In 1965, the religious jurisdiction of Diu was entrusted to the Missionary Society of St Francis Xavier. The complexities of annexing Portuguese-ruled territories meant that the Vatican did not accept the resignation of the last patriarch until 1975. The dioceses of Dili and Macau were also de-linked from the ecclesiastical province and placed directly under the Holy See.

With the Quoniam Archdioecesi bull of 30 January 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Raul Nicolau Gonçalves as Archbishop of Goa and Daman, also titled ad honorem Patriarch of the East Indies. By Inter Capital of 12 December 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrao Archbishop of Goa and Daman, also granting him the honorary patriarch title.

The Archdiocese of Goa and Daman remained—until 25 November 2006—as just an archdiocese, since the archdiocese had had no suffragan dioceses since 1 January 1975, when Macao and Dili were separated from it. On 25 November 2006, Pope Benedict XVI with Cum Christi Evangelii made the diocese of Sindhudurg a suffragan of Goa and Daman, together with which it formed a new ecclesiastical province.

The civil district of North Kanara (Uttara Kannada) was part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman till 19 September 1953 when the New Roman Catholic Diocese of Belgaum was erected. Two civil districts, Belgaum and North Kanara, were separated from the Archdiocese of Goa and two other civil districts, Dharwad and Bijapur, were taken from the Diocese of Poona to form the Diocese of Belgaum.

Episcopal ordinaries

NamePeriodsNotes
Archbishops
34ºFilipe Neri do Rosário Ferrão2004–presentSecond Goan Patriarch of the East Indies and Archbishop of Goa and Daman
33ºRaul Nicolau Gonçalves1978–2004First Goan Patriarch of the East Indies and Archbishop of Goa and Daman
32ºJosé Vieira Alvernaz1953–1975Last Archbishop of Portuguese periodFormer Bishop Of Cochin
-José Vieira Alvernaz1950-1953Archbishop-coadjutor
31ºJosé da Costa Nunes1940–1953Later Cardinal
30ºTeotónio Manuel Ribeiro Vieira de Castro1929–1940
29ºMateus de Oliveira Xavier1909–1929
28ºAntónio Sebastião Valente1882-1908first Patriarch of the East Indies
27ºAires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos1875-1880
26ºJoão Crisóstomo de Amorim Pessoa1862-1874Later archbishop of Braga
25ºJosé Maria da Silva Torres1844-1851
24ºFrei Manuel de São Galdino, O.F.M.1812-1831
-Frei Manuel de São Galdino, O.F.M.1804-1812Archbishop-coadjutor
23ºFrei Manuel de Santa Catarina, O.C.D.1784-1812
22ºFrei Francisco da Assunção e Brito, O.S.A.1773-1783
21ºAntónio Taveira da Neiva Brum da Silveira1750-1773
20ºFrei Lourenço de Santa Maria e Melo, O.F.M.1741-1750Later archbishop-bishop of Faro
19ºFrei Eugénio de Trigueiros, O.S.A.1741Died before taking office.
18ºFrei Inácio de Santa Teresa, O.S.A.1721-1740
17ºSebastião de Andrade Pessanha1715-1721
16ºFrei Agostinho da Anunciação, O.C.1690-1713
15ºFrei Alberto de São Gonçalo da Silva, O.S.A.1686-1688
14ºManuel de Sousa Meneses1680-1684
13ºFrei António Brandão, O.C.1674-1678
12ºFrei Cristóvão da Silveira, O.S.A.1670-1673
11ºFrei Francisco dos Mártires, O.F.M.1635-1652
10ºFrei Manuel Teles de Brito, O.P.1631-1633
Frei Sebastião de São Pedro, O.S.A.1624-1629
Frei Cristóvão de Sá e Lisboa, O.S.H.1612-1622
Frei Aleixo de Meneses O.S.A.1595-1612Later archbishop of Braga and viceroy of Portugal
Frei Mateus de Medina, O. Carm.1588-1593
Frei João Vicente da Fonseca, O.P.1583-1586
Frei Henrique de Távora e Brito, O.P.1578-1581
Gaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira1571-1576reappointed
Frei Jorge Temudo, O.P.1567-1571
Gaspar Jorge de Leão Pereira1558-1567
Bishops
-Filipe do Rosário Ferrão1993-2004Auxiliary Bishop
-Raul Nicolau Gonçalves1967-1978Auxiliary Bishop
-Francisco Xavier da Piedade Rebelo1963-1966Auxiliary bishop, apostolic administrator sede plena between 1966 and 1972.
-António Joaquim de Medeiros1882-1884Auxiliary Bishop after bishop of Macau
-Tomás Gomes de Almeida1879-1883Auxiliary Bishop
-Joaquim de Santa Rita Botelho 1851 - ????Bishop of Cochin, head vicar and governor of Goa archbishop
-Pedro da Silva1688-1690Bishop of Cochin, as Apostolic Administrator
-Frei Miguel da Cruz Rangel, O.P.1634-1635Bishop of Cochin, as Apostolic Administrator
-Frei João da Rocha, S.J.1630-1631titular bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, as Apostolic Administrator
-Domingos Torrado, O.E.S.A.1605-1612Auxiliary Bishop, titular bishop of Fisicula
-Diego da Conceição de Araújo, O.E.S.A.1595-1597Auxiliary Bishop, titular bishop of Calama
-André de Santa Maria, O.F.M.1593-1595Bishop of Cochin, as Apostolic Administrator
-Jorge de Santa Luzia, O.P.1559-1560Bishop of Malacca, as Apostolic Administrator
Frei João de Albuquerque, O.F.M.1539-1553First resident bishop of Goa
Francisco de Melo1533-1536First bishop of Goa, did not take possession.
Priests and friars as administrators
-António João de Ataíde1839-1844priest
-António Feliciano de Santa Rita Carvalho1837-1839head vicar and governor of the archbishopric of Goa
-Paulo António Dias da Conceição1835-1837priest, Cathedral administrator
-José Paulo da Costa Pereira de Almeida1831-1835priest, Dean of the Cathedral
-Gonçalo Veloso1629 - 1630head vicar
-Frei Domingos Torrado (also Domingos Terrado or Domingos da Trinidade)1612governor

Saints and causes for canonisation

See also

Sources and external links

Bibliography
Pontifical documents

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Statistics - Archdiocese of Goa . www.catholic-hierarchy.org . 2008-07-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080518044155/http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dgoae.html#stats#stats . 2008-05-18 . live .
  2. Web site: About The Archdiocese - Goa DCSCM. archgoadaman.com. 2024-01-27.
  3. Web site: Titular Patriarchal See of East Indies . 2017-05-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170508104320/http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/eind0.htm# . 2017-05-08 . live .
  4. Web site: Archdiocese of Goa e Damão . . 2014 . 2008-07-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080518044155/http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dgoae.html# . 2008-05-18 . live .
  5. Conselho Ultramarino, p.455
  6. Book: Stephen Neill. A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707. Cambridge University Press. 2004. 117. 0521548853.
  7. Gabriel Saldanha, p 356
  8. Associação Marítima e Colonial, p. 314
  9. Associação Marítima e Colonial, p. 314-315
  10. Instituto Histórico, Geographico e Ethnographico do Brasil, p. 171-172
  11. Web site: Apostolic Nunciature, India & Nepal . 2018-08-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180730202701/http://www.apostolicnunciatureindia.com/DiocesesofIndiaDispFull.aspx?DID=241# . 2018-07-30 . live .
  12. Gabriel Saldanha, p.361
  13. Web site: Concordat between the Holy See and Portugal, 1886 . 2018-08-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180205082238/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ass/documents/ASS-19-1886-87-ocr.pdf# . 2018-02-05 . live .
  14. https://www.britannica.com/place/Daman-and-Diu Daman and Diu
  15. Web site: Saints & Blessed – CCBI. Oct 17, 2019. 18 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200218103142/http://ccbi.in/saints-blessed/. live.
  16. Web site: Canonisation process of Fr Jacome on in Sri Lanka | Goa News - Times of India . Timesofindia.indiatimes.com . 2019-07-24 . 2020-02-26 . 20 July 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200720010806/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/canonisation-process-of-fr-jacome-on-in-sri-lanka/articleshow/70353874.cms . live .