Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Caracas

Archdiocese of Caracas Archidiœcesis Caracarum Arquidiocesis de Caracas
Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Ann
Location
Country	Venezuela
Territory	Municipio Libertador, Municipio Chacao, Municipio Sucre, Municipio El Hatillo, Municipio Baruta.
Ecclesiastical province	Province of Caracas
Statistics
Area	382 sq mi (990 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2006) 4,644,000 3,960,000 (85.3%)
Parishes	116
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin Rite
Established	21 June 1531 (487 years ago)
Cathedral	Catedral Metropolitana de Santa Ana
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Auxiliary Bishops	Luis Armando Tineo Rivera Jesús González de Zarate Tulio Luis Ramírez Padilla José Trinidad Fernández Angulo
Apostolic Administrator	Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo
Emeritus Bishops	Jorge Cardinal Urosa Pedro Nicolás Bermúdez Roberto Dávila Uzcátegui
Map
Website
Archidiocese of Caracas Official (in Spanish)

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Caracas is the Latin an ecclesiastical territory of the Roman Catholic Church in part of Venezuela. It was founded as the Diocese of Caracas on June 20, 1637, and was later elevated to the rank of a Metropolitan see on November 27, 1803.

This episcopal see occupies a territory of about 790 square kilometers and is not unlikely to be given several Auxiliary bishops. The current Archbishop is Cardinal Jorge Urosa, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on September 19, 2005.

Its cathedral episcopal see is the Catedral Metropolitana de Santa Ana, in national capital Caracas, Distrito Federal, which also has three Minor Basilicas: Basílica de Santa Teresa, Basílica San Pedro Apóstol and Basílica Santuario de Santa Capilla (also a National Shrine).

History

• Established on 20 June 1637 as Diocese of Caracas alias Santiago de Venezuela, on vast territory split off from the suppressed Diocese of Coro, which had itself been established in 1531, by the Papal Bull Pro Excellentia praeeminentia issued by Pope Clement VII in St. Peter's in Rome on 21 June of that year and was based in Coro, Falcón State, then the capital of Venezuela, but vacant since 1721 to 1727.^[1][2]

• It lost territories in 1715 to establish the Apostolic Prefecture of Curaçao and on 16 February 1778 to establish the Diocese of Mérida (Venezuela).

• The Diocese was elevated to Metropolitan Archdiocese of Caracas by Papal Bull In universalis ecclesiae regimine issued by Pope Pius VII in the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome on November 24, 1803, until this date having been a suffragan in the Ecclesiastical Province of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, now in the Dominican Republic and primatial see of the Americas.

• It lost more territories repeatedly to establish Dioceses : on 1863.03.07 to establish the Calabozo, on 1922.10.12 Valencia (Venezuela), on 1958.06.21 Maracay, on 1965.07.23 Los Teques (its suffragan) and on 1970.04.15 La Guaira (also its suffragan).

• It enjoyed papal visits by Pope John Paul II in January 1985 and February 1996.

Province

Its ecclesiastical province in Venezuela comprises the Metropolitan's own Archbishopric and the following suffragan sees :

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Guarenas
• Roman Catholic Diocese of La Guaira
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Teques.

Ordinaries

See also

• Roman Catholicism in Venezuela

References

Sources and external links

• Official website
• GCatholic.org, with incumbent biography links
• Catholic-Hierarchy ^{[self-published]}
• Catholic Encyclopedia

Coordinates: 10°30′22″N 66°54′51″W / 10.50611°N 66.91417°W / 10.50611; -66.91417