Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau

Diocese of Macau

Dioecesis Macaonensis

天主教澳門教區
Location
Country China
Territory Macau
Statistics
Area30 km2 (12 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics
(as of 2013)
582,000
29,611 (5.1%)
Information
DenominationCatholic Church
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
CathedralCathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
BishopStephen Lee Bun-sang
Vicar GeneralFather Pedro Chung
Website
catholic.org.mo
Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese天主教澳門教區
Simplified Chinese天主教澳门教区
Portuguese name
PortugueseDiocese de Macau

The Diocese of Macau (Portuguese: Diocese de Macau; Chinese: 天主教澳門教區) is a Latin Church 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 of the Diocese of Macau encompasses Macau, a special administrative region of China. In theory, a part of Guangdong province also belongs to the diocese, but in practice, the diocese is limited to Macau.

Its cathedral is the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady.

Its patron saints are Francis Xavier and Catherine of Siena, and its motto is Scientia et Virtus (Knowledge and Virtue).

Stephen Lee Bun-sang is the current bishop and the third Chinese bishop of the diocese.

History

It was established on January 23, 1576, by the edict of Pope Gregory XIII, on vast territory split off from Roman Catholic Diocese of Malacca. It originally covered China, Japan, Vietnam and the Malay archipelago, with the exception of the Philippines. From its founding, the diocese was a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese (soon Patriarchate) of Goa, in Portuguese India.

It gradually lost most of its territory, in and around continental China:

It was made exempt in 1975, following Portugal's loss of sovereignty over Goa, its former metropolitan.

It now only administers Macau alone, the last regions outside Macau under its administration were the parishes of Saint Joseph in Singapore (re-united with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore c. 1972) and St. Peter's Church in Malacca (now as part of Roman Catholic Diocese of Malacca-Johor), which separated from the Diocese of Macau in 1981.

Bishops

Bishops of Macau

The Bishop's House

from 1641 to 1668, no bishops were named due to the Portuguese Restoration War between Spain and Portugal

  • Father Bento de Christo (1640–1642), administrator
  • Father Francisco de S. Thomaz, named by Peter II of Portugal in 1669 but not confirmed by the Pope
  • Father Giovanni Filippo de Marini (also Filippe de Marino) (1671–1677), administrator

Coadjutor bishops

Parishes

The diocese is divided in:

Schools

Escola do Santíssimo Rosário

The following schools are directly operated by the diocese:

Preschool through secondary school
Preschool through junior high school
Preschool and primary school
  • Escola Dom João Paulino - Taipa
  • Escola Madalena de Canossa - Nossa Senhora de Fátima
  • Escola de Santa Teresa do Menino Jesus - Nossa Senhora de Fátima

There are other Catholic schools in Macau which are operated by Catholic orders.

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-10-11 15:48 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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