The Immaculate Conception Cathedral ( es, Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción , also Juticalpa Cathedral) is a
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 ...
located in the city of
Juticalpa
Juticalpa () is the capital of Olancho Department in Honduras, with a population of 69,850 (2020 calculation), and the municipal seat of Juticalpa Municipality. Situated in a broad river valley alongside the Rio Juticalpa, the town is a commerci ...
, in the department of Olancho, part of the Central American country of
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
. It is one of the four cathedrals dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of St. Mary in Honduran territory, the others being
Choluteca,
Comayagua
Comayagua () is a city, municipality and old capital of Honduras, located northwest of Tegucigalpa on the highway to San Pedro Sula and above sea level.
The accelerated growth experienced by the city of Comayagua led the municipal authoriti ...
and
Danlí.
History
According to one historian, it was Fray Antonio Bertrand in 1734 who first called for a church to be built in Juticalpa, asking for funds from the Captaincy General of Guatemala. Members of the local community contributed according to their means, as well as parishioners. Not much is known about this original church. Work on a new building commenced in 1835 by the master builder Hipólito Estrada. His work was interrupted and Enrique Cañas continued. The high altar was built by Coronado Chávez, and it was covered with ten pounds of gold paint. The temple was finished in 1847. The clock that is in one of the towers was donated by Juan Vilardebó and his wife Irene Güell on December 8, 1875.
The temple follows the Roman or Latin rite and is the mother church of the diocese of Juticalpa (''Dioecesis Iuticalpensis''). It was created as a territorial prelature in 1949, and elevated to its current status in 1987 through the bull "Universae Dei" 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 ...
. It is under the pastoral responsibility of Bishop José Bonello.
See also
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Roman Catholicism in Honduras
The Catholic Church in Honduras is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
There are over four million Catholics in Honduras - around three quarters of the total population. The country is divid ...
*
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Church
Roman Catholic cathedrals in Honduras
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1847
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Honduras