Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Panamá

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The Archdiocese of Panama (Latin: Archidioecesis panamensis ) is a Roman Catholic diocese based in Panama City, Panama. It includes the province of Panama.

History

Pope Leo X. founded on August 28, 1513 the Diocese of Santa María de La Antigua del Panama and imputed it to the archbishopric of Seville suffragan. It was only on December 7, 1520, it received its present name.

The diocese was divided on 24 April and November 3, 1534 and entered large areas of its territory to the newly erected diocese of Cartagena (Colombia) and Leon (Nicaragua ) from.

On February 12, 1546, the diocese was a part of the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Lima. On 22 August of the same year another territory was separated and assigned to the new direction of the bishopric Popayán.

Francisco Javier de Luna Victoria y Castro was the first bishop of Panama, who led the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a cathedral in 1751.

On April 22, 1836 Diocese of Seville gave the suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bogotá. Since 1901, the Diocese of Panama was part of the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Cartagena.

On November 29, 1925, the diocese again lost territories, this time to the newly erected Vicariate Apostolic of Darién, but it was raised to the rank of an archdiocese, which was assumed from now on directly to the Holy See.

Pius XII. announced with the Bull Etsi cotidie on March 6, 1955 that further parts of the land ownership of the Archdiocese of Panama, had to cede to the benefit of a newly established diocese and raised in compensation the Diocese of Panama to the rank of Metropolitan Church.

The last time cessions of territory are dated July 21, 1962, 13 July 1963 to 18 December 1993. Beneficiaries were the dioceses of the Diocese of Chitre, of the diocese of Santiago de Veraguas and the bishopric Penonomé.