The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chihuahua
( la, Archidioecesis Chihuahuensis) is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Latin Rite Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Mexico. CatedralChihuahua

Early history

Erected in 1891 from the Diocese of Durango, the diocese consisted of the

State of Chihuahua Chihuahua (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chihuahua ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chihuahua), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is located in northwestern Mex ...

in its entirety. The Durango Diocese had been erected in 1620 as the diocese for the entire northern area of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

and is considered a mother diocese: Sonora

St Louis

New Mexico

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsnfe.html] and Chihuahua were formed from Durango as population expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Anti-clericalism

The laws promulgated by the liberal government of President

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Liberalism in Mexico, Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec peoples, Zapo ...

, the

Constitution of 1857 The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1857 ( es, Constitución Federal de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos de 1857), often called simply the Constitution of 1857, was the liberal constitution promulgated in 1857 by Constituent Cong ...

and the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

, together had the effect of disenfranchising the Catholic clergy and large swaths of Catholic laity. Thus studying for the priesthood became a difficult proposition for candidates in Chihuahua, and, indeed, in all of Mexico. Many of Chihuahua's priests were trained at the seminaries in El Paso, TX, Santa Fe, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. One of them, Fr. Pedro Maldonado, was ordained in the Cathedral of El Paso in 1918,

martyred A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

in 1937, and

canonised Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 200

In 2022 two Jesuit priests, Joaquin Mora and Javier Campos, were murdered by suspected members of a drug cartel after offering refuge to one Pedro Palma, who was fleeing the criminals and was also murdered.

Demographics

The diocese was elevated to the level of Archdiocese on 22 November 1958 by Bl. Pope John XXIII

and now is the metropolitan of the following

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...

s within the

Ecclesiastical Province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of Chihuahua: Ciudad Juárez

Cuauhtémoc-Madera

Nuevo Casas Grandes

Parral

and Tarahumara

All of these suffragan dioceses were formed from Chihuahua, and are located within the physical boundaries of the State of Chihuahua. The archdiocese encompasses 73,956 square kilometers in the center of the state, and as of 2006, contained 1,176,000 Catholics, 59 parishes, 131 priests and 10 permanent deacons. The archepiscopal see is the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Our Lady of Regla, and St Francis of Assisi. Constancio Miranda Weckman

was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI

as archbishop and installed on 19 November 2009, succeeding José Fernández Arteag

who had retired. Fernández had been appointed archbishop by Pope John Paul II

in 1992; his predecessor, Adalberto Almeida y Merino

died on 21 June 2008, at the age of 92 at his home in Colonia Nombre de Dios, Chihuahua.

Bishops

Ordinaries

* José de Jesús Ortíz y Rodrígue

10 Jun 1893 Appointed – 16 Sep 1901 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guadalajara, Appointed, Archbishop of Guadalajara, Jalisco)† * Nicolás Pérez Gavilán y Echeverrí

20 Feb 1902 Appointed – 3 Dec 1919 Died)† * Antonio Guízar y Valenciabr>
(20 Jul 1920 Appointed – 24 Aug 1969 Retired)† (Antonio Guízar was the younger brother of St

Rafael Guízar Valencia Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

br>
) * Adalberto Almeida y Merino

(24 Aug 1969 Appointed – 24 Jun 1991 Retired)† *

José Fernández Arteaga José Fernández Arteaga (12 September 1933 – 17 December 2021) was a Mexican prelate of the Catholic Church who served as archbishop of Chihuahua. He previously served as the bishop of Apatzingán from 1974 to 1980 and Colima Colima () ...

br>
(24 Jun 1991 Succeeded – 28 September 2009 Retired)† *

Constancio Miranda Weckmann Constancio Miranda Weckmann (born 15 September 1952) is a Mexican archbishop of the Roman Catholic church, currently serving as head of the archdiocese of Chihuahua. In the past he was also the bishop of Atlacomulco, as well as briefly serving a ...

br>
28 September 2009 Appointed) †-Deceased

Coadjutor bishops

Luis Mena Arroyo Luis Mena Arroyo (April 27, 1920 Churintzio – March 3, 2009) was a Mexican Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico from 1961 to 1964 and, with personal title of Archbishop, from 1979 until 1995. Between those stints, he w ...

(1964–1969); did not succeed to see; appointed Archbishop (Personal Title), Auxiliary of México, Federal District in 1979 *

(1988–1991)

Auxiliary bishop

* Francisco Espino Porras (1943–1961)

Other priests of the diocese who became bishop

* Manuel Talamás Camandari, appointed Bishop of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in 1957 * Luis Martín Barraza Beltrán, appointed Bishop of Torreón, Coahuila November 29 of 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chihuahua Roman Catholic dioceses in Mexico Religious organizations established in 1891 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 19th century Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces in Mexico Chihuahua (state) A 1891 establishments in Mexico