Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán is located in Mexico; Campeche and Tabasco are its suffragans. Its area is that of the state of the same name, 17,204 sq. miles. There is a legend that long before the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico the Christian religion had been preached in Yucatán by Quetzacoatl. Yucatán was the first region of the Mexican territory to encounter Christianity in the sixteenth century; it was there that the first Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated. It is said that in 1517 Francisco Hernández de Cordóba, the discoverer and explorer of the region, founded the first parish. Leo X, believing the newly-discovered land to be an island, by the Bull "Sacri apostolatus ministerio", dated 27 January 1518, created the Bishopric of Yucatán, under the name "Carolense" and placed it under the protection of "Santa Maria de los Remedios". When it was known that Yucatán was part of the continent which Hernán Cortés was conquering, Clement VII made certain modifications, and Father Julián Garcés, appointed first Bishop of Yucatán, to make his residence at Tlaxcala when he arrived in Mexico, as the Spanish had abandoned the conquest of Yucatán for this new land. The first resident bishop was Francisco Toral, a Franciscan, who took possession on 15 August 1562, one year after his election; he assisted at the first and second Mexican councils.

Marcos de Torres y Rueda, the twelfth bishop (1647), owing to dissensions between Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Bishop of Puebla, and Viceroy García Sarmiento de Sotomayor, 2nd conde de Salvatierra, was named Viceroy of New Spain and entered into office 13 May 1648; he died at the capital, 22 April 1649.

Juan Gómez de Parada, the twentieth bishop, governed the dioceses of Yucatán, Guatemala, and Guadalajara with great success. His successor, Ignacio Castorena y Ursúa, was the founder of the first newspaper published in Mexico. José María Guerra, thirty-fifth bishop (d. 1863), lived during the famous Caste War, which ruined almost the whole of Yucatán. It was at the instance of Leandro Rodríguez de la Gala, his successor, that the new See of Tabasco was formed from parishes taken from the Diocese of Yucatán. The Province and Vicariate of Petén, situated in Guatemala, which ecclesiastically had belonged to Yucatán, became a part of the See of Guatemala. Believing that the colony of Belize was his dependency, the bishop sent missionaries there in 1864; this land, however, had been under the administration of priests sent form the Vicariate Apostolic of Jamaica since 1837. The Diocese of Yucatán was suffragan of Mexico until 1891, when it became suffragan of the newly-created Archdiocese of Oaxaca. In 1895 the new See of Campeche was created from parishes taken from Yucatán, to which was added all the territory of Quintana Roo.