The Diocese of Saltillo ( la, Dioecesis Saltillensis) is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Jo ...

ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In 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 provinces were administratively associ ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. The diocese was erected on 23 June 1891. It is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

of the

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

Archdiocese of Monterrey.

History

The

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Father Andres de Leon was one of the first missionaries in this territory in the sixteenth century. In 1827 the name of Saltillo was changed to Ciudad Leona Vicario, in honor of the Mexican heroine of that name, but the original name always prevailed. The Franciscan Fathers of the Province of Jalisco had eight missions in Coahuila, which, in 1777, formed part of the See of Linares, or Monterey, and belonged to it until 1891, when

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-ol ...

erected the See of Saltillo with jurisdiction over the entire State of Coahuila. According to the

Catholic News Agency The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is a private institution of EWTN that provides news related to the Catholic Church to the global anglophone audience. Founded in 2004 as the English section of the worldwide ACI Group, it is headquartered in Denve ...

(CNA), Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo, Mexico will meet with Cardinal

Marc Ouellet Marc Armand Ouellet (born 8 June 1944) is a Canadian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI ...

, the Cardinal Prefect of the

Congregation for Bishops The Dicastery for Bishops, formerly named Congregation for Bishops (), is the department of the Roman Curia that oversees the selection of most new bishops. Its proposals require papal approval to take effect, but are usually followed. The Dic ...

in the Vatican's Roman Curia, "to discuss Bishop Vera's support for the San Elredo Community, an organization that embraces

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

." The San Elredo Community has become a separate organization apart from the Diocese of Saltillo.

Bishops

Ordinaries

* Santiago de los Santos Garza Zambrano (1893–1898), appointed Bishop of León, Guanajuato * José María de Jesús Portugal y Serratos, O.F.M. (1898–1902), appointed Bishop of Aguascalientes * Jesús María Echavarría y Aguirre (1904–1954) *

Luis Guízar y Barragán Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

(1954–1975) * Francisco Raúl Villalobos Padilla (1975–1999) * José Raúl Vera López, O.P. (1999–2020) - Bishop Emeritus * Hilario González García (2020–present)

Coadjutor bishop

(1938–1954)

Auxiliary bishops

* Manuel Samaniego Barriga (1969–1971), appointed Bishop of Ciudad Altamirano, Guerrero * Francisco Raúl Villalobos Padilla (1971–1975), appointed Bishop here

Territorial losses

Episcopal See

Saltillo, Coahuila Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and hig ...

External links and references

* Saltillo Saltillo, Roman Catholic Diocese of Saltillo Saltillo 1891 establishments in Mexico Saltillo {{Mexico-RC-diocese-stub