Patriarchate of the West Indies

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Patriarchate of West Indies

Patriarchatus Indiarum Occidentalium
Location
CountryFlag of Spain.svg  Spain
Territory West Indies
Caribbean
Information
Denomination Catholic Church
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established11 May 1524
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Patriarch Sede vacante

The Patriarchate of the West Indies (Latin : Patriarchatus Indiarum Occidentalium, Spanish : Patriarcado de las Indias Occidentales) is a patriarchate of the Catholic Church with titular jurisdiction over the Latin Church in Spanish America. It was established in 1524 and held by the Military Vicar of Spain from the creation of that office in 1705. It has been vacant since the death of the last patriarch in 1963. [1] [2] A similar position held has been the "Primate of the Indies" which is given to the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo. [3]

Contents

History

Jurisdictional patriarchate attempts

King Ferdinand V of Castile asked Pope Leo X to establish a patriarchate for the ecclesiastical government of the American territories discovered by the Spaniards. The Holy See was not keen to accept the establishment of such an autonomous Spanish American church and, on 11 May 1524, Clement VII agreed to create it but only as honorific, without jurisdiction and without clergy. In addition, the patriarch was banned from actually residing in the Americas.

Antonio de Rojas, archbishop of Granada and bishop of Palencia, was the first patriarch. The following patriarchs were the bishop of Jaén, Esteban Gabriel Merino (1530–1535) and the archbishop of Granada, Fernando Niño y Zapata (1546–1552). After Niño's death, the office remained vacant because Philip II, against the Holy See policy, wished an actual jurisdictional patriarchate. Finally, the king agreed in 1591 to propose the archbishop of Mexico City (but who was actually resident in Madrid as president of the Council of the Indies), Pedro Moya de Contreras. However, the new patriarch died before he could take the oath of his new office.

In 1602, Philip III abandoned the idea of a jurisdictional patriarchate and used it as an honorific title for noble clergymen. [4] Philip III gave the honorific title to Pedro Manso de Zuñiga y Sola, brother of Francisco Manso de Zuñiga y Sola.

Merger with the Spanish Military Vicariate

In 1705, Pope Clement XI named Patriarch Carlos de Borja Centellas the Military Vicar (General) of the Spanish Armies. Beginning in 1736, Pope Clement XII merged the office of vicar general of the Spanish Armies with the Patriarchate of the West Indies pro tempore et ad septennium, that is, "temporarily for seven years", and added to those titles the Royal Palace's Chaplaincy in 1741. [4]

Clement XIII decreed the merger of the patriarchate and the military vicariate in 1762. [5] By 1816, in recognition of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo being the first established in the Western Hemisphere, Pope Pius VII declared that its resident archbishop can use the title "Primate of the Indies." [3]

Last incumbent and contemporary status

In 1933, Patriarch Ramón Pérez Rodríguez was appointed bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta. [6] The previous year, the Spanish republican government had abolished the military vicariate. Thus, the patriarchate remained vacant.

During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists organized a religious military service and the Holy See appointed Cardinal Isidro Gomá, the archbishop of Toledo, as interim pontifical delegate. In 1940, Gomá died and the auxiliary bishop Gregorio Modrego was commissioned with the deceased cardinal's military duties. In 1942, Modrego was appointed bishop of Barcelona. During all that time, the patriarchate remained vacant. [5]

In 1946, the bishop of Madrid, Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, was appointed as the patriarch of the West Indies, but without the military ordinariate, which was established once more as a military archbishopric in 1950, this time without any association with the patriarch's title.

Since Eijo's death, this titular patriarchate has remained vacant; and in 1954, the Concordat between the Dominican Republic and the Vatican ratified the use of Santo Domingo's archbishop being granted the position of "Primate of the Indies." [7] [8]

List of patriarchs of the West Indies

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Patriarchate of West Indies" Catholic-Hierarchy.org . David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016
  2. ↑ "Titular Patriarchal See of Indias Occidentales" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved February 29, 2016
  3. 1 2 Pius 7.> (1849). Bullarii Romani continuatio Summorum Pontificum Clementis 13., Clementis 14., Pii 6., Pii 7., Leonis 12. et Pii 8. (dal v. 11: ..., Pii 8. et Gregorii 16.) constitutiones, literas in forma brevis, epistolas ad principes viros, et alios, atque allocutiones (poi anche: alloquutiones) complectens: Tomus decimus quartus continens pontificatus Pii 7. annum decimum septimum ad octavum (in Italian). ex typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae. Primatis Indiarum"{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hernández Ruigómez, Manuel: "Patriarcado de Indias", in Artola, M. (ed.): Enciclopedia de Historia de España, Madrid: Alianza, V, pp. 927-928
  5. 1 2 (in Spanish) Arzobispadocastrense.com: Raíces históricas de la pastoral con los militares Archived 2009-04-19 at the Wayback Machine
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Catholic Hierarchy: Archdiocese of West Indies and GCatholic.org: Titular Patriarchal See of Indias Occidentales, Spain
  7. ↑ "Concordat Watch - Dominican Republic | Trujillo's Concordat (1954)". www.concordatwatch.eu. Retrieved 2020-09-03. The Archbishop of Santo Domingo shall have the title of Primate of the Indies, in accordance with the Bull of Pius VII Divinis Praeceptis of 28th of September 1816.
  8. ↑ "Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic". GCatholic. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Eubel, Konrad (1923). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentioris aevi. Vol. III (second ed.). Münster: Libreria Regensbergiana. p. 213.(in Latin)
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