ARCHDIOCESE OF MANILA
History
Manila was established as a suffragan diocese of Mexico on February 6,
1579 by Pope Gregory XIII by virtue of the Apostolic Constitution “Illius
fulti praesido,” following the first successful missionary efforts.
Archbishops
In 1578, Fray Domingo Salazar, OP was appointed first Bishop of the diocese,
taking possession of his ecclesiastical seat in 1581. The church which
was earlier built by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in the site where the Manila
Cathedral now stands became the seat of the diocese under the patronage
of La Purisima Imaculada Concepcion de Nuestra Señora. Under him
the First Synod of Manila was held among whose decisions were the teaching
of catechism in the native dialect and the declaration of the human rights
of the native Christians and non-Christians.
Since Bishop Salazar, thirty prelates have governed the ecclesiastical
territory. Salazar was succeeded by Santibañez, a Franciscan. He
was replaced by the Dominican Miguel de Benavidez in 1603. Diego Vazquez
de Mercado, who was appointed in 1610, was the first secular to head the
Archdiocese. Following him was a succession Archbishops coming from three
religious congregations, Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, with some
secular priests being appointed in between among whom was Basilio Sancho
de Sta. Justa y Rufina, who headed the Archdiocese from 1767-1787. He
adopted the policy for the training of native secular priests to replace
those from the religious orders in the parishes of the Archdiocese. In
1903, following the establishment of American sovereignty in the Philippines,
the first non-Spanish archbishop was appointed. He was Jeremiah Harty,
a secular priest, who succeeded the Dominican Bernardino Nozaleda, the
last of the Spanish archbishops. Another American, Michael O’Doherty
became archbishop of Manila in 1916 following a stint as the first bishop
of Zamboanga In 1949, Gabriel M. Reyes, a Filipino, was appointed the
First Filipino Archbishop of Manila. Succeeding him, in 1953, was Rufino
J. Santos who, in 1960, was elevated to the cardinalate, to become the
first Filipino Cardinal Archbishop of Manila.
Jaime L. Sin, who was then archbishop of Jaro in Iloilo was appointed
archbishop of Manila in 1974 following the death of Cardinal Santos in
1973.
Territories
On August 14,1595, Pope Clement VIII raised the Diocese to the status
of an Archdiocese and created three new dioceses as suffragan to Manila:
Nueva Caceres, Nueva Segovia, and Cebu. With the creation of these new
dioceses, the territory of the Archdiocese was reduced to the city of
Manila and the ten civil provinces near it. Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga,
Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Bataan, Zambales, and Mindoro.
On April 10, 1910, the province of Mindoro was established as an independent
diocese by virtue of a Decretum Consistoriale executed by Pope Pius XI
implementing the Bull “Quae Mari Sinico” of Pope Leo XIII.
Eighteen years later, on May 19, 1928, Pope Pius XI established the Diocese
of Lingayen, diving Manila and Nueva Segovia. In this division 26 parishes
were separated from Manila.
On December 11, 1948, the Apostolic Constitution, “Probe noscitur”
further divided the Archdiocese of Manila by separating the northern part
of the Archdiocese and establishing it as the Diocese of San Fernando.
On November 25, 1961, the Archdiocese of Manila was again divided. The
civil provinces of Bulacan in the north and Cavite in the south were separated
from the archdiocese. Bulacan became the Diocese of Malolos and Cavite
became the Diocese of Imus.
The Eastern part of the province of Rizal was removed from the Archdiocese
of Manila on January 24, 1983. Fifteen towns and two barangays were separated
from Manila to form the diocese of Antipolo.
In 2002, two more dioceses were carved out of the Archdiocese of Manila.
These are the Diocese of Novaliches in the north and the Diocese of Paranaque
in the south also comprising the cities of Las Pinas and Muntinlupa. This
happened during the term of His Eminence, Jaime Cardinal Sin, D.D., who
became the third Filipino prelate of the See of Manila on January 19,
1974.
 CHARACTERISTICS
Geographical Aspect
The Archdiocese of Manila is made up of seven (7) cities, namely, Manila,
Makati, Pasay, Mandaluyong, Pasig (excluding Santolan and Rosario District),
Quezon City (excluding Northern part from Tandang Sora Avenue and Mactan),
Kalookan and five (5) municipalities, namely, San Juan, Taguig, Pateros,
Malabon and Navotas. It covers a land area of 315.26 sq. km. It is bounded
by the Diocese of Malolos (Bulcan) in the north; Diocese of Antipolo (Rizal)
in the East; Diocese of Imus (Cavite) and San Pablo (Laguna) in the south;
and the Manila Bay in the west.
ˆ top ˆ
|
