| Archdiocese of Bombay Archidioecesis Bombayensis |
|
|---|---|
Cathedral of the Holy Name |
|
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| Territory | Maharashtra |
| Metropolitan | Mumbai (formerly Bombay) |
| Statistics | |
| Population - Total |
(as of 2006) 506,976 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Latin (or Roman) |
| Established | September 1, 1886 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of the Holy Name |
| Patron saint | St. Gonsalo Garcia |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Benedict XVI |
| Archbishop | Oswald Gracias |
| Auxiliary Bishop | Percival Joseph Fernandez (emeritus; retired Jan. 4, 2011), Agnelo Rufino Gracias, Bosco Penha |
| Website | |
| archbom.org | |
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in India. The archdiocese has been a metropolitan see since the time it was elevated by Pope Leo XIII on September 1, 1886. The ecclesiastical province of Bombay includes the suffragan dioceses of Nashik, Pune, and Vasai. As of 2006, the archdiocese had 277 diocesan priests, 283 religious priests, 383 male religious orders and 1,530 female religious orders. The archdiocese serves a total of 506,976 Catholics in 118 parishes scattered across Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
The current archbishop is Oswald Gracias, who was appointed on 14 October 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI.[1] He is also the president of Conference of Catholic Bishop in India (CCBI) and will lead the CCBI delegates for the forthcoming 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.[2][3]
Contents |
The Portuguese first reached the west coast of India when Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut in 1498.[4] They finally established themselves at Goa in 1510.[5] In 1526, they established a factory in Bassein. In 1534, the islands of Bassein, Salsette, Bombay and Karanja were ceded to the Portuguese by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat.[6][7] In this very year, the Archdiocese of Goa was created and the whole of the western coast around Bombay formed part of that archdiocese.[8] Missionary activities in Bassein, Salsette and Bombay commenced from 1534 onwards, thus laying the foundation of the future Archdiocese of Bombay. The Portuguese missionaries who accompanied the conquerors were the Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans and Augustinians.
In 1665, the Bombay Island was ceded to the British as a part of the marriage dowry to Charles II of England by Catherine of Braganza of Portugal.[9] The Church on Bombay Island still continued to be under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Goa. The year 1692 marks the end of the Jesuit presence in Bombay. The Decree expelling the Portuguese Franciscans from Bombay was issued by the British on May 24, 1720. Later, the British allowed the Italian Carmelites to take charge of the Catholic community in Bombay. In 1794, the double jurisdiction was devised by the British, which threw open to interference of the British in the religious life of the Catholics.
On December 12, 1853 the Carmelites decided to give up the administration of the Bombay Mission. The Holy See accepted their resignation and thus ended, after a period of 133 years (1720–1853), the Carmelite administration of the Vicariate of Bombay. On February 16, 1854 the propaganda officially divided the Bombay Vicariate into the northern Vicariate of Bombay (comprising the islands of Bombay, Colaba, Aurangabad, Khandesh, Malwa, Gujarat, and Sindh as far as Kabul and Punjab) and the southern Vicariate of Poona (comprising the islands of Salsette and Bassein, and the regions of the Konkan and Deccan or Bijapur). Further the propaganda entrusted the Bombay Vicariate to the Capuchin Fathers and the Poona Vicariate to the Jesuit Fathers. Finally, the Archdiocese of Bombay was established by Pope Leo XIII on September 1, 1886. The archdiocese received territorial jurisdiction over Bombay Island and over the northern districts of the Vicariate of Bombay with Poona as a suffragan diocese. Mangalore and Trichinopoly were added as suffragan sees in 1893, in which year the First Provincial Council was held (Acta et Decreta, Bombay, 1898).
The Examiner (formerly called the Bombay Catholic Examiner), is a diocesan news weekly published at the Examiner Press of the Archdiocese of Bombay.[10] It was established on 10 July 1849 by a Jesuit father. Tej-Prasarini is a media and communication institution run by the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Archdiocese of Bombay. It combines a multimedia production centre with training programmes in creativity, media and peace education. It is a member of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication. The Archdioces has now official opened its very own Catholic Communication Centre on the 5th of November 2011. The new Archdiocese of Bombay website was launched on the 12th of November 2011 and is now archdioceseofbombay.org ref>{{cite web |url = http://archdioceseofbombay.org[11]