Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi#History

{{Short description|Roman Catholic archdiocese in Delhi and Haryana, India}}

{{Infobox diocese

| jurisdiction = Archdiocese

| name = Delhi

| latin = Archidioecesis Delhiensis

| local = दिल्ली के सूबा

| image = Sacred Heart Cathedral (New Delhi).jpg

| image_size =

| image_alt =

| caption = Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi,

| country = {{flag|India}}

| territory = New Delhi

| province = Delhi

| metropolitan =

| archdeaconries =

| deaneries =

| subdivisions =

| coordinates =

| area_km2 = 15,420

| population = 26,469,385

| population_as_of = 2013

| catholics = 112,348

| catholics_percent = 0.4

| area_footnotes =

| parishes = 84

| churches =

| congregations =

| schools =

| members =

| denomination = Catholic Church

| sui_iuris_church = Latin Church

| rite = Roman Rite

| established = 13 April 1937

| cathedral = Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi

| cocathedral =

| patron = Sacred Heart of Jesus

| patron_title =

| priests = 259

| pope = {{Incumbent pope}}

| bishop_title = Archbishop

| metro_archbishop = Anil Joseph Thomas Couto

| suffragans =

| auxiliary_bishops =Deepak Valerian Tauro

| emeritus_bishops = Vincent Concessao

| map = Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi in India.jpg

| map_size =

| map_alt =

| map_caption =

| website = [http://www.archdiocesedelhi.org/ Website of the Archdiocese]

| footnotes =

|headquarters=}}

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Delhi ({{langx|la|Delhien(sis)}}) is a Latin Church Metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in northern India.

Its cathedral archiepiscopal see is Sacred Heart Cathedral, in the national capital city of New Delhi.

History

13 September 1910: Established as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Simla, on territory split off from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Agra and Diocese of Lahore
13 April 1937: Renamed as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Delhi and Simla
4 June 1959: Renamed as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Delhi, having lost territory to establish as suffragan the Diocese of Simla

Pope John Paul II made two papal visits, in February 1986 and November 1999.

Statistics

{{As of|2014}}, the diocese served 115,300 Catholics (0.4% of the total population of 26,810,000) in {{convert|15420|km2}}, with 60 parishes and 4 missions. Personnel consisted of 301 priests (130 diocesan, 171 religious), 1,006 religious (391 brothers, 615 sisters) and 25 seminarians.{{citation needed|date=January 2019}}

Ordinaries

(all Latin Church)

;Metropolitan Archbishops of Simla

Archbishop Anselm Edward John Kenealy, OFMCap (21 December 1910 – 13 January 1936 see below)
Apostolic Administrator Archbishop Anselm Edward John Kenealy, OOFMCap (see above 13 January 1936 – 13 April 1937), when retired as Titular Archbishop of Ratiaria (13 January 1936 – death 8 December 1943)

;Metropolitan Archbishops of Delhi and Simla

Silvestro Patrizio Mulligan, OFMCap (13 April 1937 – death 16 August 1950), Titular Archbishop emeritus of Cyrrhus (1950.08.16 – 1950.10.23)
Apostolic Administrator Father John Burke (1950 – 12 April 1951) (later Bishop)
Joseph Alexander Fernandes (12 April 1951 – 4 June 1959)

;Metropolitan Archbishops of Delhi

Joseph Alexander Fernandes (4 June 1959 – 16 September 1967)
Angelo Innocent Fernandes (16 September 1967 – 19 November 1990)
Alan Basil de Lastic (19 November 1990 – 20 June 2000)
Vincent Michael Conçessao (7 September 2000 – 30 November 2012)
Auxiliary Bishop: Franco Mulakkal (17 January 2009 – 13 June 2013)
Anil Joseph Thomas Couto (30 November 2012 – ...)

Ecclesiastical province

Delhi's ecclesiastical province comprises the Metropolitan's own archdiocese and the following suffragan dioceses:

Sources and external links

[http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/delh0.htm GCatholic.org]
[http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/ddelh.html Catholic Hierarchy]
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120414043436/http://archdiocesedelhi.com/ Archdiocese website]}}