From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Titular Patriarch of the East Indies
(
Latin
:
Patriarcha Indiarum Orientalium
;
Patriarchatus Indiarum Orientalium
for Titular Patriarchate of the
East Indies
) in the
Catholic
hierarchy
is the title of the
Archbishop of Goa and Daman
in
India
; another of his titles is
the
Primate
of the East
. Unlike the
patriarchs
and the
major archbishops
of the
Eastern Catholic Churches
sui juris
, the Patriarch of the East Indies is within the
Latin Church
similar to the residential Latin
Patriarchs of Venice
,
Lisbon
and
Jerusalem
, enjoying only an honorary position. Like the
Patriarch of the West Indies
, the Patriarch of the East Indies is a titular patriarchate unlike the residential Latin Catholic Patriarchs. The title is attached to the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, the diocesan
ordinary
of the
Archdiocese of Goa and Daman
and the
metropolitan archbishop
of the Province of Goa and Daman.
This title of Patriarch or Primate of the
East Indies
was conferred upon the Archbishop of Goa as a result of a
concordat
between the
Holy See
and the
Crown of Portugal
; concerning the link between religious and political aspects of
Portuguese India
, known as the
Padroado
system. Later, with Portugal's decline as a colonial power, a difficult period resulted that was resolved by a further agreement by which Portugal renounced its rights of patronage. In this way the episcopal appointments in actual or former Portuguese colonial territory reverted to the common provisions of Latin ecclesiological law, with no intermediary between them and the Holy See. As regards India, this meant that the Holy See was free to make appointments to the episcopate in regions such as
British Bombay
.
[
citation needed
]
The later isolation of the territory of
Goa and Damaon
as enclaves in India prior to the invasion of Indian forces in 1961 accounts for the fact that the Archbishop of Goa for a number of decades was immediately subject to the Holy See and had no
suffragan
dioceses. In the more distant past the archbishop did have a true
metropolitan
jurisdiction, with suffragan dioceses. These, however, were progressively stripped away or suppressed, the final suffragan diocese in India was the Diocese of Damaon, which was merged with the
Bishopric of Goa
on May 1, 1928, to form the present
archdiocese
. The archdiocese formally lost its status as a metropolitan see on January 1, 1975, when the Dioceses of
Macao
and
Dili
were transferred from the province of Goa. On November 25, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI
elevated it again to a metropolitan archdiocese, with the
Diocese of Sindhudurg
as its suffragan.
[
citation needed
]
Patriarchs of the East Indies
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edit
]
Sources
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External links
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