ASIA/INDIA - The Pope creates new Ecclesiastical Province of Goa and Damão and appoints new Metropolitan archbishop

Saturday, 25 November 2006

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI on 25 November 2006, created the Ecclesiastical Province of Goa and Damão (India), hitherto archdiocese immediately subject to the Holy See. The new Ecclesiastical Province includes the suffragan diocese of Sindhudurg. The Pope appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Goa and Damão, Patriarch ad honorem of the East Indies, Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, until now Archbishop of the same See.
Statistics - The ecclesiastical province of Goa and Damão has an area of 25,293 sq km and a population of 7,092,068, including 645,194 Catholics, gathered in 182 parishes, served by 398 diocesan priests, 246 religious priests and 959 women religious. It has as suffragan diocese, Sindhudurg. It comprises the State of Goa, the territories of Damão, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and the districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in the State of Maharastra. To the north it borders with the archdiocese of Bombay; to the east with Poona, Belgaum and Karwar; to the south with Karwar and to the west with the Arabian See. The name, the See, the cathedral, the Bishop’s Resident and the Curia remain those of the diocese of Goa and Damão. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 25/11/2006; Righe 13; Parole 188)


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