The Diocese of Macau (Portuguese: Diocese de Macau; Chinese: 天主教澳門教區[romanization needed]) is a Latin Church exempt ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church,[1] in contrast with the Diocese of Hong Kong, which is, de jure, part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Guangdong.
Diocese of Macau Dioecesis Macaonensis 天主教澳門教區 | |
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Location | |
Country | China |
Territory | Macau |
Statistics | |
Area | 30 km2 (12 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2013) 582,000 29,611 (5.1%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Catholic Church |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Cathedral | Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Stephen Lee Bun-sang |
Vicar General | Father Pedro Chung |
Website | |
catholic.org.mo |
Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau | |||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 天主教澳門教區 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 天主教澳门教区 | ||||||||||
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Portuguese name | |||||||||||
Portuguese | Diocese de Macau |
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.[2]
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.
from 1641 to 1668, no bishops were named due to the Portuguese Restoration War between Spain and Portugal[9]
The diocese is divided in:
The following schools are directly operated by the diocese:
There are other Catholic schools in Macau which are operated by Catholic orders.
China was divided into three padroado dioceses with limited territory: the diocese of Beijing included the provinces of Zhili and Shandong as well as the territory of Liaodung in Manchuria; the diocese of Nanjing consisted of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Henan; and the diocese of Macao included Guangdong, Guangxi, and the island of Hainan
O Depois da morte de D. Leonardo, governou a Diocese o P. Manuel de Aguiar e, logo a seguir, Frei Miguel dos Santos
22°11′37″N 113°32′31″E / 22.1936°N 113.5420°E