Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila

History

Per the efforts of conquistador Martín de Goiti—who founded the City of Manila by uniting the dominions of Sulayman III of Namayan, and Sabag, Rajah Ache Matanda of Maynila, and Lakan Dula of Tondo—the Diocese of Manila was then canonically erected on February 6, 1579 through the Papal bull Illius Fulti Præsidio by Pope Gregory XIII, encompassing all Spanish colonies in Asia as a suffragan of Mexico. Fray Domingo de Salazar, a Dominican from the Convent of San Sebastian in Salamanca, Spain, was selected by King Philip II of Spain to be bishop of the new diocese and was presented to the pope.

Over the course of history and growth of Catholicism in the Philippines, the diocese was elevated and new dioceses had been carved from its territory. On August 14, 1595, Pope Clement VIII raised the diocese to the status of an archdiocese with Bishop Ignacio Santibáñez elevated as its first archbishop. Three new dioceses were created as suffragan to Manila: Nueva Cáceres, 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 adjoining civil provinces in proximity including Mindoro Island. It was bounded to the north by the Diocese of Nueva Segovia, to the south by the Diocese of Cebu, and to the southeast by the Diocese of Nueva Cáceres.

During the Hispanic period, the Archdiocese was ruled by a succession of Spanish and Latino archbishops. The British occupation of Manila during the Seven Years' War saw the temporary conversion of Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu to Catholicism, the massive looting and destruction of ecclesiastical treasures, as well as the burning of churches by British soldiers, Sepoy mercenaries and rebellious Chinese residents in Binondo. This episode was particularly damaging to Philippine scholarship due to the fact that the monasteries holding the archives and artifacts about the precolonial Philippine Rajahnates, Datudoms, Sultanates and Huangdoms and their conversion to Catholicism; were either burnt, lost or looted by the British. An example of which would be the Boxer Codex, whose earliest owner Lord Giles of Ilchester, had inherited it from an ancestor who stole it from Manila during the British Occupation.

Nevertheless, peace was subsequently restored after the Protestant British occupation. In the time after this, the Catholic religious orders (with the exception of the Jesuits who were temporarily suppressed by the Spaniards due to their role in anti-imperialist movements in Latin America) became the powerful driving force in the Archdiocese of Manila. The local diocesan clergy resented the foreign religious orders due to their near monopoly of ecclesiastical positions. The opposition of the religious orders against an autonomous diocesan clergy independent of them lead to the martyrdom of priests Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, Jacinto Zamora collectively known as Gomburza. This inspired the Jesuit educated Jose Rizal to form the La Liga Filipina, to ask for reforms from Spain and recognition of local clergy.

Rizal was executed and the La Liga Filipina dissolved. The 1896 Philippine revolution was triggered when the Spanish discovered the anti-colonial secret organisation Katipunan, and ended Spanish rule. The United States took the Philippines from Spain in the 1898 Spanish–American War; this developed into fighting between the Philippine revolutionaries and the US in the 1899–1902 Philippine–American War, followed by victory for the US and disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church as the state church of the Philippines. Some members of the Katipunan then turned to the Catholic Church, especially to the Jesuit order who had fostered Philippine nationalism in the students they educated. In the period after the war Philippine churches were restored in the Art-Deco architectural motif.

The province of Mindoro was established as an independent diocese on April 10, 1910 by virtue of a Decretum Consistoriale executed by Pope Pius X, implementing the Bull Quae Mari Sinico of Pope Leo XIII. On the same date the Diocese of Lipa (later Archdiocese of Lipa) was created, with jurisdiction over the provinces of Batangas, Tayabas, Marinduque and some parts of Masbate.

In May 1928 Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Lingayen, carved from Manila and Nueva Segovia. In this creation 26 parishes were separated from Manila. He also named Our Lady of Guadalupe as a patroness of the Filipino people in 1938.

December 8, 1941, marked the beginning of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Members of the secretive Black Dragon Society had infiltrated all facets of Philippine life and had greatly guided the invading Japanese forces. World War 2 marked a period of irreplaceable loss to the Archdiocese of Manila. The combination of violent theft and arson done by the Japanese and the indiscriminate carpet bombing perpetuated by the Americans lead to the permanent loss of many of the ancient Gothic, Art-Deco and Earthquake Baroque Cathedrals found around the Archdiocese of Manila.

In the aftermath of the war, in September 1942, Pope Pius XII declared Our Lady of Immaculate Conception as the Principal Patroness of the Philippines on the Papal Bull, Impositi Nobis, along with Saints Pudentiana and Rose of Lima as secondary patrons.

Due to the heavy damages resulted from World War II, the Manila Cathedral underwent major rebuilding from 1946 to 1958. The Parish of San Miguel served as pro-cathedral or temporary cathedral of the local church until the Manila Cathedral was reopened and blessed in 1958.

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 partitioned. The civil provinces of Bulacan in the north and Cavite in the south were separated from the Archdiocese with the northern part becoming the Diocese of Malolos and the south the Diocese of Imus.

Pope John Paul II declared the Manila Cathedral a minor basilica in 1981 through a Motu Proprio. In 1983, fifteen towns in Eastern Rizal, the city of Marikina, and two barangays of Pasig were separated to form the Diocese of Antipolo.

The archdiocese witnessed many grace-filled church events such as the Second Synod of Manila (1911), Third Synod of Manila (1925), 33rd International Eucharistic Congress (1937), First Plenary Council of the Philippines (1953), papal visit of Pope Paul VI (1970), Fourth Synod of Manila (1979), papal visits of Pope John Paul II (the first in 1981 and the second in 1995), National Marian Year (1985), National Eucharistic Year (1987), Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (1991), Second Provincial Council of Manila (1996), and World Meeting of Families (2003).

In 2002, two more dioceses were carved out of the Archdiocese: the Diocese of Novaliches in the north and the Diocese of Parañaque in the south, which also comprised the cities of Las Piñas and Muntinlupa.

In 2003, by the recommendation of Jaime Cardinal Sin (the spiritual leader of the People Power Revolution) and by papal decree, the archdiocese was further partitioned to form three new dioceses: the dioceses of Cubao, Caloocan and Pasig.

Archbishop

The seat of the Archbishop is in Manila Cathedral-Basilica, under the patronage of the Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The Archbishop is also overseer of several suffragan dioceses of Manila.

The Archbishop notably has an ex officio voting seat on the board of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, as the Archdiocese is the bank's fifth-largest owner with an 8.46% share.

After having been served by a single diocesan bishop, nineteen archbishops were later appointed from Spain. In 1903, the archdiocese received its first American archbishop as appointed by the Holy See. Following the tenure of Archbishop Jeremiah James Harty from St. Louis, Missouri, the Irishman Michael J. O'Doherty was appointed, and received on September 6, 1916.

O'Doherty would lead the church in times when the Filipinos were petitioning for sovereignty from the United States and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines during World War II. When O'Doherty died after Philippine independence in 1946, Rev. Gabriel Reyes, already serving as coadjutor archbishop, became the first native Filipino chosen for the position. Reyes' successor, Archbishop Rufino Jiao Santos, became the first Filipino to become a cardinal in 1960. After Santos' death in 1973, Auxiliary Bishop Artemio Casas was named in the capacity of vicar-capitular to oversee the archdiocese until a bishop was nominated. On January 21, 1974, Pope Paul VI appointed then-Archbishop of Jaro Jaime Sin as the 30th Archbishop of Manila. Archbishop Sin was named cardinal in 1976 and would later be instrumental in the People Power Revolution of 1986 that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II appointed Gaudencio Rosales, Archbishop of Lipa, to succeed an ageing Cardinal Sin. Pope Benedict XVI later elevated Rosales to the cardinalate on March 24, 2006. On October 13, 2011, Most Reverend Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Bishop of Imus, was named archbishop. Tagle succeeded Cardinal Rosales, who had resigned at the compulsory age of retirement, and is now Archbishop Emeritus. Tagle was himself made a cardinal by Benedict XVI on November 24, 2012.

Auxiliary bishops

Coadjutor Archbishops

College of Consultors

Below are member priests of the College of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Manila since July 1, 2015. Auxiliary bishops also serve as vicars general.

Demographics

As of 2004, the archdiocese has registered a total of 2,719,781 baptized faithful. They are served by 475 diocesan and religious priests – with a ratio of 5,725 faithful per priest, under 85 parishes. The archdiocese also houses 369 male religious and 1,730 female religious engaged in various social, pastoral and missionary works in various areas of the archdiocese.

Formation of priests

The archdiocese administers San Carlos Seminary, the archdiocesan major seminary which caters to the formation of future priests for the archdiocese and for its suffragan dioceses. Located in Guadalupe Viejo, Makati City, it has college program (AB Philosophy) and graduate school (master's degree in theology or pastoral ministry), as well as formation houses for future priests committed to serve the Filipino-Chinese communities in the country (Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society) and a center for adult vocations (Holy Apostles Senior Seminary). The archdiocese also operates Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary for young men at the secondary school level. It is located a few blocks from San Carlos Seminary.

Parishes