Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cape Town (Latin: Archidioecesis Civitatis Capitis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in South Africa. It was erected as the Apostolic Vicariate of Cape of Good Hope on June 18, 1818 by Pope Pius VII, and renamed as the Apostolic Vicariate of Cape of Good Hope, Western District on July 30, 1847 and as the Apostolic Vicariate of Cape Town on June 13, 1939. Pope Pius XII elevated it to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese on January 11, 1951, with the suffragan sees of Aliwal, De Aar, Oudtshoorn, Port Elizabeth, and Queenstown.

The archdiocese's motherchurch and thus seat of its archbishop is the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flight into Egypt. The current Archbishop of Cape Town is His Grace Lawrence Patrick Henry, having been appointed by Pope John Paul II on July 7, 1990.

[edit] List of Ordinaries of Cape Town

• William Placid Morris, OSB (1831 - 1840)
• John Leonard (1872 - 19 Feb 1908)
• John Rooney (1908 - 1925)
• Bernard Cornelius O'Riley (1925 - 1933)
• Francis Hennemann, SAC (1933 - 1949)
• Owen McCann (1950 - 1984)
• Stephen Naidoo, CSSR (1984 - 1989)
• Lawrence Patrick Henry (1990 - present)

[edit] See also

• Roman Catholicism in South Africa

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Catholic-Hierarchy
• Giga-Catholic Information