Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador

Archdiocese of San Salvador

Archidiœcesis Sancti Salvatoris in America

Arquidócesis de San Salvador
Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior
Location
CountryEl Salvador
Territory
Ecclesiastical provinceSan Salvador
MetropolitanMetropolitan Area of San Salvador
HeadquartersSan Salvador City
Statistics
Area3,295 km2 (1,272 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics
(as of 2014)
3,137,000
2,322,000 (74.02%)
Parishes162
Congregations354
Members1,826
Information
DenominationCatholic Church
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
Established28 September 1842 (182 years, 33 days)
as Diocese of San Salvador
CathedralCatedral Metropolitana de San Salvador
(Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior)
Secular priests158
LanguageSpanish and Latin
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
Metropolitan ArchbishopJosé Luis Escobar Alas
Map
Website
www.arzobispadosansalvador.org

The Archdiocese of San Salvador is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. Its archepiscopal see is the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, and the surrounding region.

The current Archbishop of San Salvador is José Luis Escobar Alas. His cathedra is in Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador, otherwise the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Saviour (Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador). The city also has a former cathedral, now the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Spanish: Basílica del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús), and a minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin of Guadelupe, the Basílica de la Ceiba de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. The Archdiocese of San Salvador is the sole metropolitan see in El Salvador, with seven suffragan dioceses in its ecclesiastical province: the Dioceses of Chalatenango, San Miguel, San Vicente, Santa Ana, Santiago de María, Sonsonate, and Zacatecoluca.

The Archdiocese of San Salvador has an unusual arrangement in which the auxiliary bishop, Gregorio Rosa Chávez, is a cardinal, whilst the archbishop is not. The Archbishop of San Salvador retains ordinary authority over the archdiocese.

Statistics

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As of 2014, it pastorally served 2,322,000 Catholics (74.0% of 3,137,000 total) on 3,295 km2 in 162 parishes and 6 missions with 354 priests (158 diocesan, 196 religious), 1 deacon, 1,471 lay religious (343 brothers, 1,128 sisters) and 107 seminarians.

History

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What is currently the territory of the Republic of El Salvador previously was part of the Spanish colonial Captaincy General (governorship) of Guatemala and, ecclesiastically, of the Archdiocese of Guatemala. Until 1842, there were four church regions in El Salvador, which reported to the San Salvador region, the most important one: Santa Ana, Sonsonate, San Vicente and San Miguel.

Twentieth Century policy

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Under three archbishops, Luis Chávez y González, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, and Arturo Rivera y Damas, the archdiocese saw over fifty years of a progressive pastoral ministry influenced by the currents of the Second Vatican Council and a Latin American church trend that later was known as Liberation Theology. Critics interpreted the Church's advocacy for the poor as fomenting a socialist revolution and targeted the clergy for assassination. Two bishops, including Archbishop Romero, were assassinated, as were twenty six priests (including Fr. Rutilio Grande), three nuns and countless catechists and Church workers.

The post-Civil War period saw a return to traditional spirituality under the watch of the conservative Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, a former military chaplain and member of Opus Dei.[citation needed]

Sexual abuse cases

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In November 2015, sex abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of San Salvador became public[1] when the archdiocese's third highest ranking priest, Jesus Delgado, who was also the biographer and personal secretary of the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero[2] was dismissed by the archdiocese after its investigation showed that he had molested a girl, now 42 years of age, when she was between the ages of 9 and 17.[2] Due to the statute of limitations, Delgado could not face criminal charges.[3] In December 2016, a canonical court convicted Delgado and two other El Salvador priests, Francisco Galvez and Antonio Molina, of committing acts of sex abuse between the years 1980 and 2000 and laicized them from the priesthood.[1][4][5][3] In November 2019, the archdiocese acknowledged sex abuse committed by a priest identified as Leopoldo Sosa Tolentino in 1994 and issued a public apology to his victim. Tolentino was suspended from ministry and began the canonical trial process.[6] Another El Salvador priest was laicized in 2019 after pleading guilty to sex abuse in a Vatican trial and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in a criminal trial.[1]

Ecclesiastical province

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The ecclesiastical province of San Salvador comprises the whole country, consisting of the Metropolitan's archbishopric and the following suffragan sees:

Bishops

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Ordinaries

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Bishops of San Salvador
Bishop Term start Term end Appointed by Ref.
1
José Jorge de Viteri y Ungo
José Jorge de Viteri y Ungo
José Jorge de Viteri y Ungo
(1802–1853)
27 January
1843
5 November
1849
Gregory XVI [7]
6 years and 292 days
2
Tomas Miguel Pineda y Saldaña
Tomas Miguel Pineda y Saldaña
Tomas Miguel Pineda y Saldaña
(1791–1875)
10 March
1853
6 August
1875
Pius IX [8]
22 years and 159 days
3
José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez
José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez
José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez
(1836–1885)
6 August
1875
12 September
1885
[9]
10 years and 27 days
4
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
(1839–1926)
13 January
1888
11 February
1913
Leo XIII [10]
25 years and 29 days
Archbishops of San Salvador
Archbishop Term start Term end Appointed by Ref.
4
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar
(1839–1926)
11 February
1913
17 April
1926
Pius X [10]
13 years and 65 days
5
José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez
José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez
José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez
(1873–1938)
22 December
1927
9 August
1938
Pius XI [11]
10 years and 230 days
6
Luis Chávez y González
Luis Chávez y González
Luis Chávez y González
(1901–1987)
1 September
1938
3 February
1977
[12]
38 years and 155 days
7
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
Saint
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
(1917–1980)
3 February
1977
24 March
1980
Paul VI [13]
3 years and 50 days
8 Arturo Rivera y Damas
S.D.B.
(1923–1994)
28 February
1983
26 November
1994
John Paul II [14]
11 years and 271 days
9 Fernando Sáenz Lacalle
(1932–2022)
22 April
1995
27 December
2008
[15]
13 years and 249 days
10
José Luis Escobar Alas
José Luis Escobar Alas
José Luis Escobar Alas
(1959–)
27 December
2008
Incumbent Benedict XVI [16]
15 years and 309 days

Coadjutor Bishops

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Auxiliary Bishops

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  • Tomás Miguel Pineda y Saldaña (1848–1853), appointed Bishop here
  • Santiago Ricardo Vilanova y Meléndez (1913–1915), appointed Bishop of Santa Ana
  • José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez (1919–1927), appointed Archbishop here
  • Pedro Arnoldo Aparicio y Quintanilla, S.D.B. (1946–1948), appointed Bishop of San Vicente
  • Rafael Valladares y Argumedo (1956–1961)
  • Arturo Rivera y Damas (1960–1977), appointed Bishop of Santiago de María and later Archbishop of San Salvador
  • José Eduardo Alvarez Ramírez, C.M. (1965–1969), appointed Bishop of San Miguel
  • Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (1970–1974), appointed Bishop of Santiago de María
  • Marco René Revelo Contreras (1978–1981), appointed Bishop of Santa Ana
  • Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez (1982–present); elevated to Cardinal in 2017

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "El Salvador archbishop apologizes over priest sex abuse case". Associated Press. November 3, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Senior El Salvador priest fired over alleged sex with minor". Reuters. November 26, 2015. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Vatican court finds three El Salvador priests guilty of child abuse – CatholicHerald.co.uk". catholicherald.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21.
  4. ^ "Vatican trial finds three El Salvadoran priests guilty of sex abuse". Reuters. December 19, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  5. ^ "Romero – Compromised Canonization". Gloria.tv. March 9, 2018. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  6. ^ "Initiate canonical process and suspend priest accused of sexual abuse of minors". Catholic News Agency-ACIPrensa. November 3, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  7. ^ "Bishop José de Viteri y Ungo †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Bishop Tomás Miguel Pineda y Saldaña †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Bishop José Luis Cárcamo y Rodríguez †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Archbishop Antonio Adolfo Pérez y Aguilar †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Archbishop José Alfonso Belloso y Sánchez †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  12. ^ "Archbishop Luis Chávez y González †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  13. ^ "Archbishop St. Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas, S.D.B. †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  16. ^ "Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
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