Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Buenos Aires

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Buenos Aires ("Archidioecesis Bonaerensis") is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church based on the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The Archbishop since 28 February 1998 is Jorge Bergoglio. Its mother church is the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.

The territory of the Archdiocese has an area of 203 km² and a population of 2,729,610 (2005), of which around 2.5 million are Catholic, served by 182 parishes. It is divided into four zonal vicaries: Flores, Devoto, Belgrano and Centro, in turn subdivided into 20 deaconates.

The archdiocese has 11 suffragans, corresponding to the dioceses of Avellaneda-Lanús, Gregorio de Laferrere, Lomas de Zamora, Merlo-Moreno, Morón, San Charbel en Buenos Aires (Maronite), San Isidro, San Justo, San Martín, San Miguel, and Santa María del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires (Ukrainian).

The diocese was erected on 6 April 1620 as an offshoot of the Diocese of Paraguay, and was elevated to archdiocese on 5 March 1886. Through the years it lost large parts of its territory to the new dioceses of Montevideo, Paraná, La Plata and Viedma.

List of (arch)bishops

The following is a list of (arch)bishops, after erection of the diocese on April 6, 1620:

# Bishop Pedro Carranza Salinas, O. Carm. † (30 Mar 1620 Appointed - 29 Feb 1632 Died, first bishop)
# Bishop Cristóbal de Aresti Martínez de Aguilar, O.S.B. † (3 Dec 1635 Appointed - 1641 Died)
# Bishop Cristóbal de la Mancha y Velazco, O.P. † (31 Aug 1641 Appointed - 4 Jul 1673 Died)
# Bishop Antonio de Azcona Imberto † (9 May 1676 Appointed - 19 Feb 1700 Died)
# Bishop Gabriel de Arregui, O.F.M. † (23 Jun 1712 Appointed - 1716 Appointed, Bishop of Cuzco)
# Bishop Pedro de Fajardo, O.SS.T. † (22 May 1713 Appointed - 16 Dec 1729 Died)
# Bishop Juan de Arregui, O.F.M. † (22 Nov 1730 Appointed - 19 Dec 1736 Died)
# Bishop José de Peralta Barrionuevo y Rocha Benavídez, O.P. † (19 May 1738 Appointed - 14 Jun 1746 Appointed, Bishop of La Paz)
# Bishop Cayetano Marcellano y Agramont † (23 Jan 1749 Appointed - 23 May 1757 Appointed, Bishop of Trujillo)
# Bishop José Antonio Basurco y Herrera † (2 Apr 1757 Appointed - 5 Feb 1761 Died)
# Bishop Manuel Antonio de la Torre † (14 Jul 1762 Appointed - 20 Oct 1776 Died)
# Bishop Sebastián Malvar y Pinto, O.F.M. † (19 Oct 1777 Appointed - 15 Dec 1783 Appointed, Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela)
# Bishop Manuel Azamor y Ramírez † (27 Jan 1785 Appointed - 2 Oct 1796 Died)
# Bishop Pedro Inocencio Bejarano † (3 Jul 1797 Appointed - 23 Feb 1801 Appointed, Bishop of Sigüenza)
# Bishop Benito Lué y Riega † (9 Aug 1802 Appointed - 22 Mar 1812 Died)
# Bishop Mariano Medrano y Cabrera † (7 Oct 1829 Appointed - 7 Apr 1851 Died)
# Archbishop Mariano José de Escalada Bustillo y Zeballos † (23 Jun 1854 Appointed - 28 Jul 1870 Died, first archbishop)
# Archbishop Federico León Aneiros (Aneyros) † (25 Jul 1873 Appointed - 3 Sep 1894 Died)
# Archbishop Uladislao Castellano † (12 Sep 1895 Appointed - 6 Feb 1900 Died)
# Archbishop Mariano Antonio Espinosa † (24 Aug 1900 Appointed - 8 Apr 1923 Died)
# Archbishop José María Bottaro y Hers, O.F.M. † (9 Sep 1926 Appointed - 20 Jul 1932 Resigned)
# Cardinal Santiago Luis Copello † (20 Sep 1932 Appointed - 25 Mar 1959 Appointed, Chancellor of the Apostolic Chancery, first cardinal)
# Archbishop Fermín Emilio Lafitte † (25 Mar 1959 Succeeded - 8 Aug 1959 Died)
# Cardinal Antonio Caggiano † (15 Aug 1959 Appointed - 22 Apr 1975 Retired)
# Cardinal Juan Carlos Aramburu † (22 Apr 1975 Succeeded - 10 Jul 1990 Retired)
# Cardinal Antonio Quarracino † (10 Jul 1990 Appointed - 28 Feb 1998 Died)
# Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J. (28 Feb 1998 Succeeded - )

ee also

* Roman Catholicism in Argentina

References

* [http://www.arzbaires.org.ar/ Arzobispado de Buenos Aires] — Website of the Archdiocese.
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dbuea.html Catholic-Hierarchy] — Statistics on the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires.