The Archdiocese of Santo Domingo (Latin: Archidioecesis Metropolitae Sancti Dominici; Spanish: Arquidiócesis Metropolitana de Santo Domingo) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic. The see was erected 8 August 1511 as the Diocese of Santo Domingo and elevated to archdiocese on 12 February 1546.[1][2]
In recognition of the fact that the see was the first established in the Western Hemisphere, the Archbishop of Santo Domingo can use the title of "Primate of the Indies", according to the bull of Pope Pius VIIDivinis praeceptis issued on 28 November 1816 [3] and ratified by the Concordat between the Holy See and the Dominican Republic signed on 16 June 1954.[4][5]
As per 2014, it pastorally served 3,457,347 Catholics (95.0% of 3,639,313 total) on 4,032 km2 in 214 parishes with 478 priests (190 diocesan, 288 religious), 159 deacons, 2,845 lay religious (610 brothers, 2,235 sisters) and 284 seminarians.
The Bull of Pope Alexander VI, dated 24 June 1493, designated the Franciscan Bernardo Buil (Boil) to accompany Christopher Columbus on his second voyage of discovery, with faculties as Apostolic delegate or vicar. He did not make the journey, and his Benedictine near-namesake[who?] did. On 30 August 1495, a band of Franciscans and other missioners did arrive in Hispaniola.[7]
The see was erected on 8 August 1511 by Pope Julius II by the Bull Pontifex Romanus, which also established the bishoprics of Concepción de la Vega and the San Juan of Porto Rico, on Antillian Spanish-colonial territory split off from the Archdiocese of Seville. Three prelates, who had been appointed to the sees comprising the ecclesiastical province created in 1504 by the same pope, united their petition to that of the Crown in requesting the Holy See to suppress them and to establish the three new dioceses as suffragans to the See of Seville. This alteration was effected before any of the prelates in question had taken possession of his diocese or been consecrated a bishop. - Francisco Garcia de Padilla, a Franciscan, who in 1504 had been designed to occupy the See of Diocese of Bayuna (Baynoa, Baiunensis), was chosen the first bishop of Santo Domingo. He died before his consecration, after having named Carlos de Aragón his vicar-general and authorized him to take possession of the diocese. The first bishop to occupy the See of Santo Domingo was Alessandro Geraldini, who was appointed in 1516 and died in 1524. He was a native of Italy, and perhaps the only representative of the Americas to attend the Fifth Lateran Council.
In 1527 it gained territory from the suppressed Diocese of Concepción de la Vega, which was united, after the death of its first bishop, Pedro Suárez de Deza, to the See of Santo Domingo.
The Archbishop of Santo Domingo was awarded the title of Primate of the Indies by the bull of Pope Pius VIIDivinis praeceptis issued on 28 November 1816,[3] and such title was later ratified by the Concordat between the Holy See and the Dominican Republic signed on 16 June 1954.[4][5] This title was given in recognition of the diocese being the first in the Americas, despite the fact that the Diocese of Gardar has centuries before been established in Greenland and since abandoned.[8]
In 1848 it was demoted as non-metropolitan Archdiocese of Santo Domingo / Sancti Dominici (Latin)
^ ab"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.
