History
In the tenth century Sorrento became a metropolitan see. Previous to that time it had been directly dependent upon the Holy See (Papacy), and its bishops attended the Roman synods.
In 1558 the Turks under Piyale Pasha effected a landing at Salerno, and plundered and burned the city, on which occasion the archives perished. The new bishop, Giulio Pavesi, sought to repair the damages. Bishop Filippo Anastasi (1699) defended the immunities of the Church and was forcibly exiled to Terracina.
Cathedral and Chapter
The cathedral of Sorrento was dedicated to the Apostles Philip and James. The cathedral has the care of souls (cura animarum), who are in the care of the Dean of the Chapter. [3]
The cathedral was staffed and administered by a corporation, the Chapter, composed of five dignities (the Archdeacon, the Primicerius, the Cantor, the Dean, and the Treasurer) and twelve Canons. [4]
Archbishop Giulio Pavesi presided over a provincial synod in 1567. Archbishop Lelio Brancaccio (1571–1574) presided over a provincial synod in 1574. [5]
Bishop Antonio de Pezzo (1641–1659) presided over a diocesan synod in Sorrento in 1654. [6] Bishop Gabriele Papa (1824–1837) held a diocesan synod in the cathedral of Sorrento on 5–8 June 1827. [7]
Bishop Diego Pietra (1680) founded the seminary, afterwards enlarged by Bishop Filippo Anastasi (1699).
Concordat of 1818
Following the extinction of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the Congress of Vienna authorized the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Since the French occupation had seen the abolition of many Church institutions in the Kingdom, as well as the confiscation of most Church property and resources, it was imperative that Pope Pius VII and King Ferdinand IV reach agreement on restoration and restitution. Ferdinand, however, was not prepared to accept the pre-Napoleonic situation, in which Naples was a feudal subject of the papacy. Lengthy, detailed, and acrimonious negotiations ensued.
In 1818, a new concordat with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies committed the pope to the suppression of more than fifty small dioceses in the kingdom. Pope Pius VII, in the bull "De Utiliori" of 27 June 1818, suppressed the dioceses of Massa Lubrense, Vico Equense (Vicana), and Capri, and their territories were added to Sorrento. Sorrento was left with only one suffragan, the diocese of Castellamare. [8] In the same concordat, the King was confirmed in the right to nominate candidates for vacant bishoprics, subject to the approval of the pope. That situation persisted down until the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1860. [9]
In 1860, the Bourbon monarchy in the south of Italy and Sicily was permanently suppressed, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies became part of the Savoyard Kingdom of Italy. Many of the clergy in the south followed the lead of Pius IX in resisting the king of Turin, who had annexed the entire Papal States, with the exception of the city of Rome. In 1861, Archbishop Francesco Apuzzo of Sorrento was, by order of the new Government, exiled to France.
Loss of metropolitan status
Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the Council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, [10] major changes were made in the ecclesiastical administrative structure of southern Italy. Wide consultations had taken place with the bishops and other prelates who would be affected. Action, however, was deferred, first by the death of Pope Paul VI on 6 August 1978, then the death of Pope John Paul I on 28 September 1978, and the election of Pope John Paul II on 16 October 1978. Pope John Paul II issued a decree, "Quamquam Ecclesia," on 30 April 1979, ordering the changes. Three ecclesiastical provinces were abolished entirely: those of Conza, Capua, and Sorrento. A new ecclesiastical province was created, to be called the Regio Campana, whose Metropolitan was the Archbishop of Naples. The archbishop of Sorrento continued to enjoy the title of Archbishop, but he was no longer a metropolitan archbishop. [11]
Acquisition of territory
On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat, which was accompanied in the next year by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. The Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese. [12] On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Sorrento and Castellamare be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Archidioecesis Surrentina-Castri Maris. The seat of the diocese was to be in Sorrento, and the cathedral of Sorrento was to serve as the cathedral of the merged diocese. The cathedral in Castellamare was to become a co-cathedral, and the cathedral Chapter was to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Sorrento, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the former dioceses of Sorrento and of Castellamare. [13]
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