Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore

Last updated

Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore

Archidioecesis Pondicheriensis et Cuddalorensis

  • Archidiocèse de Pondichéry et Cuddalore
  • புதுவை கடலூர் உயர் மறைமாவட்டம்
Catholic
Puducherry Immaculate Conception Cathedral 2.jpg
Location
Country India
Ecclesiastical province Pondicherry and Cuddalore
Statistics
Area15,250 km2 (5,890 sq mi) [1]
Population
- Total
- Catholics
(as of 2021)
8,170,086 [lower-alpha 1]
400,361 [lower-alpha 1]  (4.9%)
Parishes105 [lower-alpha 1]
Information
Denomination Catholic Church
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Latin Rite
Established1776;248 years ago (1776)
Cathedral Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Pondicherry
Patron saint Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
Secular priests 234 (183 diocesan; 51 religious) [lower-alpha 1]
Calendar Indian national calendar
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop Francis Kalist
Suffragans
Map
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry Cuddalore.jpg
Website
pondicherryarchdiocese.org

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore (Latin : Archidioecesis Pondicheriensis et Cuddalorensis) is a Latin metropolitan see of the Catholic Church of Pondicherry and Cuddalore in India.

Contents

History

With a land area of 11,348 square kilometers, the Archdiocese of Pondicherry-Cuddalore extends over the Pondicherry and Karaikal civil districts of Puducherry union territory and the civil districts of Cuddalore and Viluppuram of Tamil Nadu state. In 2001, the total population of the area was 6,151,891. Ethnic groups in the territory include the Tamils and French.

The Mission of The Capuchins And The Jesuits

French Capuchins were the first missionaries to Pondicherry in 1632. But they established the first Christian stable mission only in 1674. The great ancestor of this Archdiocese is the Carnatic Mission, which was started around the year 1700 as Mission sui iuris. This Carnatic Mission was known as Missions of the Coromandel Coast and also as the Malabar Mission.

Before the establishment of the Carnatic Mission in 1700, the Jesuit Fathers of the Madurai Mission, especially John de Britto, entered the Gingee kingdom after 1660, and preached the Gospel up to the Palar River, south of Madras. Members of various religious orders, looked after the spiritual needs of the European communities in their trading centres along the coastal areas, including Cuddalore and Porto Novo.

The French Capuchins first settled in Pondicherry in 1674 and the French Jesuits, expelled from Siam also took refuge with the Capuchins in Pondicherry in 1688. In 1693, the Dutch chased away all the religious groups from Pondicherry, and they were only able to return in 1699. While the Capuchins were looking after the Europeans in Pondicherry, the French Jesuits organized the Carnatic Mission for the Indian people.

The Boundaries Of the Carnatic Mission

The boundaries of the Carnatic mission were as follows:

Jesuits Replaced By Foreign Mission Fathers

The continual wars in the 18th century, the ruin of Pondicherry town in 1761 and the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, badly hit the vast Carnatic Mission. In 1776, the French Jesuit fathers were replaced at the order of Rome by the foreign Mission French Fathers. Although the Bishop of these new missionaries had all the power of jurisdiction, he was not given the title "Vicar Apostolic", but instead called the "Superior of the Mission of the Coromandel Coast". Rome successively gave him the jurisdiction over the Madurai, Coimbatore and Mysore areas, affected by the suppression of the Society of Jesus. By 1800, the extent of the Carnatic Mission was immense, but the labourers were very few.

The First Vicar Apostolic And The First Archbishop

The Carnatic Mission was reorganized when new apostolic vicariates were created: Madras in 1832, Madurai in 1836, and the vicariates of Visakhapatnam, Mysore and Coimbatore in 1845.

Pondicherry became an apostolic vicariate of the Coromandel coast, on 1 September 1836, with Mgr. Bonnand as its first vicar apostolic. This apostolic vicariate was raised to an archbishopric on 1 September 1886, with Mgr. Laouenan as the first archbishop.

Subsequently, subdivisions of the archdiocese took place, creating the new dioceses of Kumbakonam in 1899 and Salem in 1930. In 1928, a great part of the present diocese of Vellore was separated from Pondicherry and attached to the archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore. On a reorganisation of the archdiocese by Rome in 1969, the Madurantagam taluk of Kanchipuram district was transferred to Madras, and Tiruvannamalai taluk to Vellore.

The Final Formation

As the archdiocese of Pondicherry extended over the Pondicherry union territory and the South Arcot district of Madras State, on 7 August 1953 it was given a new title by Rome: the "Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore".

Originally, the archdiocese included the former French settlements of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Chandannagar, Mahe, and Yanam. Another ex-French settlement was also looked after by the MSFS Fathers in Visakhapatnam. Chandannagar was re-allocated to the archdiocese of Calcutta, now Kolkata, and Mahé to the Kerala diocese of Calicut, now Kozhikode, in 1949.

The present archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore extends over the Pondicherry and Karaikal districts of Puducherry and the Cuddalore (excluding Chidambaram and Kattumannarkoil taluks) and Viluppuram districts of Tamil Nadu.

Leadership

Superior of Karnatic Mission / Pondicherry

Vicars Apostolic

Archbishops

Apostolic Administrator

Bishops and Cardinals from this Archdiocese

Bishops

The following bishops were ordained to priesthood for Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore and later were appointed as Bishops of various dioceses. [2] They are:

The following are the bishops who are native of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry but were ordained as priests in another diocese or religious order:

Cardinal

Suffragan dioceses

Suffragan dioceses of this archdiocese are:

Saints and causes for canonisation

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, a mission sui iuris, also known as an independent mission, can be defined as: "an ecclesial structure erected from a previous territory, with explicit boundaries, under the care of a religious community or other diocese, responding to a missionary exigency and headed by a superior nominated by the Holy See, under the aegis of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples."

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Coimbatore is a diocese located in the city of Coimbatore in the ecclesiastical province of Madras and Mylapore in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangalore</span> Roman Catholic archdiocese in Karnataka, India

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bangalore is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in India. It was erected as pro-vicariate from, as Vicariate from, as Diocese of Mysore - Bangalore in the Ecclesiastical Metropolitan Province of Pondicherry in Southern India from, as Diocese of Bangalore on 13 February 1940 by Pope Pius XII, and elevated to the rank of a Metropolitan Archdiocese on 19 September 1953, with the Suffragan Dioceses of Belgaum, Bellary, Chikmagalur, Gulbarga, Karwar, Mangalore, Udupi, Mysore, and Shimoga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chongqing</span> Roman Catholic archdiocese in China

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Chongqing is a Latin Catholic Metropolitan archdiocese located in southwestern China, yet still depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The Archbishop of Chongqing is the primate of the Catholic Church in Sichuan (Szechwan).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore</span> Roman Catholic archdiocese in Tamil Nadu, India

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madras and Mylapore/Madras and Myliapor is an archdiocese based in the city of Madras, in India. It took also the name of the ancient diocese of Mylapore, now a part of Chennai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Vellore</span> Roman Catholic diocese in Tamil Nadu, India

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vellore is a diocese located in the city of Vellore in the ecclesiastical province of Madras and Mylapore in India.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dharmapuri is a diocese located in the city of Dharmapuri in the ecclesiastical province of Pondicherry and Cuddalore in India. This Diocese administrate the political region of Dharmapuri district and Krishnagiri district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Salem</span> Latin Catholic diocese in India

The Diocese of Salem is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in India. Its episcopal see is Salem. The Diocese of Salem is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Augustine (bishop)</span> Indian prelate of the Catholic Church (1933–2017)

Archbishop Savarinathan Michael Augustine was an Indian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the sixth Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore from 1992 to 2004. He is an honorary member of Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. He served the church for 39 years as a bishop and for 56 years as a priest. He died on 4 November 2017 at the age of 84.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Tamil Nadu</span> History of Christianity in the state of Tamil Nadu, India

Christianity in the state of Tamil Nadu, India is the second largest religion in the state. According to tradition, St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, landed in Malabar Coast in AD 52. In the colonial age many Portuguese, Dutch, British and Italian Christians came to Tamil Nadu. Priests accompanied them not only to minister the colonisers but also to spread the Christian faith among the non-Christians in Tamil Nadu. Currently, Christians are a minority community comprising 6% of the total population. Christians are mainly concentrated in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu - Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference of Catholic Bishops of India</span> Assembly of Latin Catholic bishops

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India or CCBI, is the national episcopal conference of the bishops of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in India, functioning in accordance with canon 447. There are 132 Latin Catholic dioceses in the country, and 190 active and retired bishops are the members of the CCBI. This is the largest bishops' conference in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. The CCBI is a member of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

Christianity in Puducherry originated with the Capuchins from Madras who began their missionary activity here. By 1689, the Jesuits began their activity, and in 1773 the Paris Foreign Missions Society continued the mission. At that time, there were 30,000 Catholics in Pondicherry. However, the lack of missionaries and opposition from Padroado mutated the mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Abir Antonisamy</span> Indian prelate

Peter Abir Antonisamy is an Indian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Sultanpet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auguste-Siméon Colas</span> French missionary and bishop

Auguste-Siméon Colas M.E.P. was a member of Paris Foreign Missions Society and the last missionary archbishop of Archdiocese of Pondicherry. On 29 September 1930, he succeeded Archbishop Elie-Jean-Joseph Morel when the later resigned due to health reasons. He was the bishop until 28 October 1955. He was succeeded by Ambrose Rayappan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François-Jean-Marie Laouënan</span>

François-Jean-Marie Laouënan was a member of Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the archbishop of Archdiocese of Pondicherry. On 24 July 1868 he was appointed to succeed Bishop Joseph-Isidore Godelle as Vicar Apostolic of Pondicherry. He was consecrated as a bishop on 11 October 1868. When Pope Leo XII established Catholic hierarchy in India, Mgr. Laouënan was appointed as Archbishop of the same see on 25 November 1886. He was the archbishop until his death on 29 September 1892. He was succeeded by Joseph-Adolphe Gandy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Brigot</span>

Pierre Brigot was a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the first Superior of Karnatic Mission headquartered at Pondicherry which later became the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore. He was the Superior from 30 September 1776 until his death. He was formerly the Vicar Apostolic of Siam in Thailand from 8 December 1755. After his death the Karnatic Mission was headed by Bishop Nicolas Champenois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Champenois</span>

Nicolas Champenois was a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the Superior of Karnatic Mission after Pierre Brigot from 8 November 1791 until his death. He was succeeded by Louis-Charles-Auguste Hébert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph-Isidore Godelle</span>

Joseph-Isidore Godelle was a missionary of Paris Foreign Missions Society and was the vicar apostolic of Pondicherry from 21 March 1861 until his death on 15 July 1867.

References

  1. 1 2 "Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore". Catholic-Hierarchy.org . David M. Cheney. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  2. "Archdiocese Official Website". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  3. "Saints & Blessed – CCBI" . Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  4. "1805". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  5. "MICHAEL ANSALDO – Michael Ansaldo – Servant of God Michael Ansaldo" . Retrieved 19 April 2023.

Archived 9 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine