The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico (Latin: Archidioecesis Sancti Joannis Portoricensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, comprising the northeast portion of the island of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States.
On November 15, 1504, Pope Julius II issued the Papal Bull Illius fulciti which erected the first ecclesiastical province in the New World consisting of the Archdiocese of Hyaguata (located at Santo Domingo), the Diocese of Magua (located at Concepción de La Vega), and the Diocese of Bayuna (located at Lares de Guahaba). As all the dioceses were located on the island of Hispaniola, the Spanish Crown requested that the Diocese of Bayuna be transferred to Puerto Rico. The Bull never went into effect due to the objection of Ferdinand II of Aragon who opposed that the Bull gave the dioceses the right to receive a portion of the earnings from the gold and precious stones discovered in the territory. On August 8, 1511, Pope Julius II issued a new Papal Bull Pontifax Romanus which extinguished the previously granted ecclesiastical province and its dioceses and reassigned their delegated bishops: Pedro Suárez de Deza, Bishop Elect of Hyaguata, was reassigned to the Diocese of Concepción de la Vega; Father Alonso Manso, Bishop Elect of Magua, was reassigned to the Diocese of Puerto Rico; and Francisco Garcia de Padilla, Bishop Elect of Bayuna, was reassigned to the Diocese of Santo Domingo.
The See of San Juan de Puerto Rico was canonically erected on August 8, 1511 as the Diocese of Puerto Rico on the island of San Juan, as it was then called. Due to the switch of names between the island and the capital its name was changed on November 21, 1924 to the Diocese of San Juan in Puerto Rico. With the creation of the Diocese of Arecibo on April 30, 1960, San Juan was raised to the status of an archdiocese, with the new Archbishop leading a metropolitan province comprising all the dioceses on the island as suffragan dioceses.
The Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico is the metropolitan see for the Caguas, Fajardo–Humacao, Ponce, Mayagüez and the Arecibo.
The current Archbishop is the Most Reverend Roberto González Nieves, O.F.M.
The lists of bishops, archbishops and auxiliary bishops and their terms of service:
Erected August 8, 1511
Alonso Manso (8 Aug 1511 - 27 Sep 1539 Died)
Rodrigo de Bastidas y Rodriguez de Romera (6 Jul 1541 - 6 May 1567 Resigned)
Francisco Andrés de Carvajal, O.F.M. (2 Jun 1568 - 10 May 1570 Appointed, Archbishop of Santo Domingo)
Manuel de Mercado Aldrete, O.S.H. (4 Sep 1570 - 28 Mar 1576 Appointed, Bishop of Panamá)
Diego de Salamanca, O.S.A. (28 Mar 1576 - 4 Apr 1587 Resigned)
Nicolás de Ramos y Santos, O.F.M. (12 Feb 1588 - 13 Jul 1592 Appointed, Archbishop of Santo Domingo)
Antonio Calderón de León (29 Oct 1593 - 23 May 1598 Appointed, Bishop of Panamá)
Martín Vasquez de Arce, O.P. (18 Aug 1599 - 13 Jan 1609 Died)
Francisco Diaz de Cabrera y Córdoba, O.P. (17 Aug 1611 - 6 Oct 1614 Appointed, Bishop of Trujillo)
Pedro de Solier y Vargas, O.S.A. (17 Nov 1614 - 16 Dec 1619 Appointed, Archbishop of Santo Domingo)
Bernardo de Valbuena y Villanueva (14 Dec 1620 - 11 Oct 1627 Died)
Juan López de Agurto de la Mata (10 Feb 1631 - 20 Nov 1634 Confirmed, Bishop of Coro)
Juan Alonso de Solis y Mendoza, O. Carm. (1 Sep 1636 - 19 Apr 1641 Died)
Damián Lopez de Haro y Villarda, O.SS.T. (13 Jul 1643 - 24 Aug 1648 Died)
Hernando de Lobo Castrillo, O. Carm. (9 Dec 1649 - 17 Oct 1651 Died)
Francisco Naranjo, O.P. (1652 - 1655 Died)
Juan Francisco Arnaldo Isasi (29 May 1656 - 4 Apr 1661 Died)
Benito de Rivas, O.S.B. (4 Jun 1663 - 21 Aug 1668 Died)
Bartolomé Garcia de Escañuela, O.F.M. (6 Oct 1670 - 16 Nov 1676 Appointed, Bishop of Durango)
Juan de Santiago y León Garabito (1676 - 13 Sep 1677 Confirmed, Bishop of Guadalajara)
Marcos de Sobremonte (13 Sep 1677 - 10 Aug 1681 Died)
Juan Francisco de Padilla y San Martín, O. de M. (15 Nov 1683 - 1 Jun 1699 Appointed, Bishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra)
Jerónimo Nosti de Valdés, O.S.Bas. (11 Feb 1704 - 14 Dec 1705 Appointed, Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana)
Pedro de la Concepcion y Urtiaga, O.F.M. (21 Mar 1707 - Nov 1715 Died)
Raimundo Caballero, O.S.B. (30 Mar 1716 - Aug 1716 Died)
Fernando de Valdivia y Mendoza, O.A.R. (10 Jan 1718 - 25 Nov 1725 Died)
Sebastián Lorenzo Pizarro, O.S.Bas. (17 Mar 1727 - 23 Jul 1736 Died)
Francisco Pérez Lozano, O.S.Bas. (3 Mar 1738 - 9 Aug 1743 Died)
Francisco Placido de Béjar, O.S.Bas. (9 Sep 1743- 24 Jun 1745 Died)
Francisco Julián Antolino (6 May 1748 - 25 Sep 1752 Confirmed, Bishop of Caracas, Santiago de Venezuela)
Pedro Martínez de Oneca (24 May 1756 - 27 Apr 1760 Died)
Mariano Martí (25 May 1761 - 29 Jan 1770 Appointed, Bishop of Caracas, Santiago de Venezuela)
Manuel Jiménez Pérez, O.S.B. (4 Mar 1771 - 20 Aug 1781 Died)
Felipe José de Tres-Palacios y Verdeja (25 Jun 1784 - 30 Mar 1789 Appointed, Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana)
Francisco de Cuerda (29 Mar 1790 - 28 May 1795 Resigned)
Juan Bautista de Zengotita y Bengoa, O. de M. (1 Jun 1795 - 1 Nov 1802 Died)
Juan Alejo de Arizmendi de La Torre (26 Sep 1803 - 12 Oct 1814 Died)
Mariano Rodríguez de Olmedo y Valle (18 Dec 1815 - 21 Mar 1825 Confirmed, Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana)
Pedro Gutiérrez de Cos y Saavedra Seminario (13 Mar 1826 - 9 Apr 1833 Died)
Francisco Fleix y Soláns (19 Jan 1846 - 16 Apr 1846 Confirmed, Bishop of San Cristobal de la Habana)
Francisco de La Puente, O.P. (27 Jul 1846 - 3 Jul 1848 Confirmed, Bishop of Segovia)
Gil Estévez y Tomás (3 Jul 1848 - 23 Jun 1854 Confirmed, Bishop of Tarazona)
Vicente Benigno Carrión, O.F.M. Cap. (21 Dec 1857 - 29 Nov 1871 Died)
Juan Antonio Puig y Montserrat, O.F.M. (16 Jan 1874 - 2 Jan 1894 Died)
Toribio Minguella y Arnedo, O.A.R. (21 May 1894 - 24 Mar 1898 Appointed, Bishop of Sigüenza)
Francisco Javier Valdés y Noriega, O.S.A. (24 Mar 1898 - 6 Apr 1899 Resigned)
James Herbert Blenk, S.M. (12 Jun 1899 - 20 Apr 1906 Appointed, Archbishop of New Orleans, Louisiana)
William Ambrose Jones, O.S.A. (12 Jan 1907 - 17 Feb 1921 Died)
George Joseph Caruana (5 Aug 1921 - 22 Dec 1925 Appointed, Apostolic Delegate to México)
Edwin Vincent Byrne (8 Mar 1929 - 12 Jun 1943 Appointed, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Name Changed: November 24, 1924
Edwin Byrne (1929–1943)
James Peter Davis (1943–1960)
Elevated April 30, 1960
James Peter Davis, 1960–1964
Luis Aponte Cardinal Martínez, 1964–1999
Roberto González Nieves, O.F.M., 1999–present
Hermín Negrón Santana, Auxiliary Bishop of San Juan (1981—2012)
Héctor Rivera Pérez, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of San Juan (1979—2009)
Academia San José, Guaynabo
Academia del Perpetuo Socorro, San Juan
Academia Maria Reina, San Juan
Academia San Jorge, San Juan
Colegio Católico Notre Dame, Caguas
Colegio María Auxiliadora, Carolina
Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, San Juan
Colegio San José, San Juan
Arecibo
Caguas
Fajardo-Humacao
Mayagüez
Ponce
