The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dili (; ; ) is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

archdiocese 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 associated ...

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 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Timor-Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. Centered in

Dili Dili (Portuguese language, Portuguese and Tetum language, Tetum: ''Díli'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Timor-Leste. It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed in by mountai ...

, the country's capital and largest city, it has two

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 Alexandr ...

Baucau Baucau (, ) is the second-largest city in Timor-Leste, after Dili, the capital, which lies to its west. Baucau has about 16,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Baucau municipality, located in the eastern part of the country. In the time ...

and

Maliana Maliana is a city in East Timor, 149 kilometers southwest of Dili, the national capital. It has a population of 22,000. It is the capital of the Districts of East Timor, district of Bobonaro District, Bobonaro and Maliana Subdistrict, and is ...

. The oldest of the Timor-Leste three dioceses, it was established in 1940 by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

. Its status was raised to a metropolitan archdiocese in 2019 by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

. The current

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

of Dili since 2016 is Cardinal

Virgílio do Carmo da Silva Virgilio, the Italian and Spanish form of Virgil may refer to: * Virgilio, Lombardy, a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Borgo Virgilio in the Italian province of Mantua *Virgilio.it, a website People with the given name *Virgilio Barco Vargas (19 ...

. The Archdiocese of Dili serves over 740,000 Catholics across the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Atauro,

Aileu Aileu is the main township in Aileu District, East Timor. It is located 47 km (29 mi) southwest of Dili, the national capital, and had a population of 2,788 in 2015. In Portuguese Timor, the city was known as Vila General Carmona ...

, Ainaro,

Ermera Ermera (''Vila Ermera'') is a city in East Timor and a former capital of the East Timorese community, Ermera. ''Ermera'' in Mambai language (Timor), Mambai means "red water." It has a population of 8,907. Its geographical coordinates are , ...

Manufahi Manufahi (, ) is one of the municipalities of East Timor. It has a population of 53,691 (2015 census) and an area of 1,323 km2. The capital of the municipality is Same. Etymology The present name of the municipality, ''Manufahi'', is ...

, and

Oecusse Oecusse, also known as Oecusse-Ambeno (; ) and formerly just Ambeno, officially the Special Administrative Region Oecusse-Ambeno (), is an exclave, municipality (formerly a district) and the only Special Administrative Region (SAR) of East Tim ...

, covering a total area of . The

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the archdiocese is Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Dili. As of 2022, the archdiocese has 33 parishes and 234 missions, and is served by 74

secular priests In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geograph ...

and 1,024 religious priests,

brothers A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingl ...

, and

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

. The archdiocese operates two seminaries, St. Peter and St. Paul Major Seminary and the historic Our Lady of Fatima Minor Seminary, as well as a number of primary and secondary schools. The archdiocese is also home to Universidade Católica Timorense, established in 2021, which operates under the auspices of the Conferência Episcopal Timorense.

History

*4 September 1940: Established by the bull ''Sollemnibus Conventionibus'' of Pope Pius XII as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Díli from the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau The Diocese of Macau (; ) is a Latin Church exempt ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church, in contrast with the Diocese of Hong Kong, which is, ''de jure'', part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Guangdong. The territory o ...

. It was made a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman. *On 1 January 1976 with the bull ''Ad nominum'' of Pope Paul VI the diocese was given exempt status, which made it immediately subject to the Holy See. *In 1983 Bishop

Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, SDB, commonly known as Carlos Belo or Ximenes Belo (born 3 February 1948) is an East Timorese prelate of the Catholic Church. He became a bishop in 1988 and served as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of ...

, SDB, took over the administration of the Dili diocese. Then the only diocese in the territory, the 700,000 Catholics were divided into 30 parishes administered by 71 priests. *12 October 1989:

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

celebrated Mass with crowds of young people of East Timor. *On 30 November 1996 it lost a portion of its territory to the newly erected Diocese of Baucau. *On 20 June 2002, Portugal's ambassador to East Timor inaugurated the

official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...

of Dili's archbishop, a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

300,000 building financed entirely by the Portuguese government, to replace the archbishop's former home, which had been burned down in September 1999. *In 2009 the East Timorese government gave US$1.5 million to two dioceses in East Timor—Dili and

—which they are to receive annually "to run social programs for people". Poverty remains a massive problem since independence in 2002, with about half of the 1 million population unemployed and 45 per cent living on less than US$1 a day. *In 2017 the diocese had 28 parishes with 585,958 Catholics. In 2019 it had grown to 30 parishes in the five districts of Dili, Ermera, Aielu, Ainaro and Manufahi. It has 149 priests, including 63 diocesan priests, 86 religious priests, 132 brothers and 432 nuns. The country's only major seminary, St. Peter and St. Paul Major Seminary, is located within the diocese. *On 11 September 2019,

elevated Díli to the status of a metropolitan archdiocese; the Ecclesiastical Province of Dili has suffragan sees, the dioceses of Baucau and Maliana. Bishop

was raised to the rank of archbishop.

Bishops

Bishops and apostolic administrators

* Jaime Garcia Goulart (12 October 1945 – 31 January 1967; ''apostolic administrator from 18 January 1941'') * (31 January 1967 – 22 October 1977) * Martinho da Costa Lopes (''apostolic administrator,'' 22 October 1977 – May 1983) *

, SDB (''apostolic administrator'', 21 March 1988 – 26 November 2002) * Basilio do Nascimento (''apostolic administrator'', 26 November 2002 – 27 February 2004) * Alberto Ricardo da Silva (27 February 2004 – 9 February 2015) *

, SDB (30 January 2016 – 11 September 2019)

Archbishops of Dili

, SDB (11 September 2019 – present)

References

External links

Official website of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Díli
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dili Christian organizations established in 1940 Dili Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century Roman Catholic dioceses in Timor-Leste 1940 establishments in the Dutch East Indies