The archdiocese also owns, operates, and manages institutions, assets, and properties outside its own territorial jurisdiction and located on territories of various dioceses: Mt. Peace and St. Michael Retreat Houses in the dioceses of Baguio and Antipolo, Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary Manila in the diocese of Parañaque, the radio station DZRV Radio Veritas 846 kHz and Our Lady of Veritas Chapel in the diocese of Cubao, and Radio Veritas transmitter in the diocese of Malolos. Additionally, the archdiocese is a shareholder of the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
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Over the course of history and growth of Catholicism in the Philippines, the diocese was elevated and new dioceses had been carved from its territory. On August 14, 1595, Pope Clement VIII raised the diocese to the status of an archdiocese with BishopIgnacio Santibáñez its first archbishop. Three new dioceses were created as suffragans to Manila: Nueva Cáceres, Nueva Segovia, and Cebu. With the creation of these new dioceses, the territory of the archdiocese was reduced to the city of Manila and the adjoining civil provinces in proximity including Mindoro Island. It was bounded to the north by the Diocese of Nueva Segovia, to the south by the Diocese of Cebu, and to the southeast by the Diocese of Nueva Cáceres.[9]
During the Hispanic period, the archdiocese was ruled by a succession of Spanish and Latino archbishops. In the 1600s, Fr. Joaqin Martinez de Zuñiga, conducted a census of the Archdiocese of Manila which held most of Luzon under its spiritual care, and he reported 90,243 native Filipino tributes;[10]: 539 10,512 Chinese (Sangley) and mixed Chinese Filipino mestizo tributes;[10]: 537 and 10,517 mixed Spanish Filipino mestizo tributes.[10]: 539 Pure Spaniards are not counted as they are exempt from tribute, with each tribute representing an average family of 6. Out of these, Fr. Joaqin Martinez de Zuñiga exterpolated a total population count exceeding half a million souls.[10]: 537
The British occupation of Manila during the Seven Years' War saw the temporary conversion of Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu to Catholicism, the massive looting and destruction of ecclesiastical treasures, as well as the burning of churches by British soldiers, Sepoy mercenaries, and rebellious Chinese residents in Binondo. This episode was particularly damaging to Philippine scholarship due to the fact that the monasteries holding the archives and artifacts about the pre-colonial Philippine Rajahnates, Kedatuans, Sultanates, Lakanates, and Wangdoms and their conversion to Catholicism were either burnt, lost, or looted by the British. An example would be the Boxer Codex, whose earliest owner Lord Giles of Ilchester had inherited it from an ancestor who stole it from Manila during the British Occupation.[11]
Nevertheless, peace was subsequently restored after the Protestant British occupation. In the time after this, the Catholic religious orders became the powerful driving force in the Archdiocese of Manila (with the exception of the Jesuits who were temporarily suppressed by the Spaniards due to their role in anti-imperialist movements in Latin America) as Jesuits supported the Paraguayan Reductions since Jesuits even supported the natives there against Portuguese and Spanish slavers. The local Filipino diocesan clergy resented the foreign religious orders due to their near monopoly of ecclesiastical positions which violated the declarations of the Catholic Church's Council of Trent, that, once an area is no longer a missionary area but a regular diocese, friars are to surrender the parishes to diocesan priests.[12] However, upon the suppression of the Jesuits, the Recollect Order moving to the parishes once owned by Jesuits, surrendered their parishes to local Filipino diocesan clergy, temporarily assuaging Filipino yearnings.[12] However upon the restoration of the Jesuits, the Recollects were forced to retake their parishes from the diocesans. The opposition of the religious orders against an autonomous diocesan clergy independent of them lead to the martyrdom of Filipino diocesan priests Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, Jacinto Zamora collectively known as Gomburza who were wrongly implicated in the Cavite Mutiny, since the Spanish feared that because a priest, Miguel Hidalgo lead the Mexican war of independence against Spain, the same would happen in the Philippines.[12] Furthermore the Governor General who was a Freemason, Rafael Izquierdo y Gutiérrez upon discovering the Cavite Mutiny was led by fellow Freemasons: Maximo Innocencio, Crisanto de los Reyes, and Enrique Paraiso; the Governor-General as per his Masonic vow to protect fellow brothers of the Craft, shifted the blame to Gomburza since they had inspired ethnic pride among Filipinos due to their campaign for reform.[12] The Governor-General asked the Catholic hierarchy in the person of Archbishop of Manila Gregorio Meliton Martinez to have them declared as heretics and defrocked but he refused as he believed in Gomburza's innocence. As the Imperial government executed Gomburza, churches all across the territory were rung in mourning.[12] This inspired the Jesuit educated and future National Hero Jose Rizal to form the La Liga Filipina, to ask for reforms from Spain and recognition of local clergy.
Rizal was executed and the La Liga Filipina dissolved. As cries for reform were ignored, formerly loyal Filipinos were radicalized and the 1896 Philippine revolution was triggered when the Spanish discovered the anti-colonial secret organisation Katipunan (formed with Masonic rites in mind, and Freemasonry is traditionally Anti-Catholic, yet were dedicated to the martyred priests Gomburza as Gomburza was a password in the Katipunan), the Katipunan waged the revolution leading to the end of Spanish rule. The United States took the Philippines from Spain in the 1898 Spanish–American War; this developed into fighting between the Philippine revolutionaries and the U.S. in the 1899–1902 Philippine–American War, many Katipuneros were devastated that their fellow Masons on the Masonic founded United States Republic killed their fellow Masonic founded Katipunan, this followed by victory for the U.S. and disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church as the state church of the Philippines. In the period after the war, Philippine churches were restored in the Art-Deco architectural motif. There was a looming threat of apostasy and schism with the rise of anti-clerical Philippine Freemasonry and the establishment of the Philippine Independent Church due to Filipino anger against Spanish ecclesiastical corruption.[13] In response, the Vatican supported Philippine independence and applied a policy of reinforcing orthodoxy and reconciliation which resulted in the majority of the Filipinos remaining faithful to the Roman Catholic Church and having a good number of those separated from the Church grafted back.
Old Ecclesiastical Seal of the Archdiocese of Manila used until 1949
The province of Mindoro was established as an independent diocese on April 10, 1910, by virtue of a Decretum Consistoriale signed by Pope Pius X, implementing the bullQuae Mari Sinico of Pope Leo XIII. On the same date, the Diocese of Lipa was created, with jurisdiction over the provinces of Batangas, Tayabas, Marinduque, and some parts of Masbate. In May 1928, Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Lingayen, carved from Manila and Nueva Segovia. In this creation, 26 parishes were separated from Manila. He also named Our Lady of Guadalupe as a patroness of the Filipino people in 1938.
December 8, 1941, marked the beginning of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.[14]World War II marked a period of irreplaceable loss to the Archdiocese of Manila. The combination of violent theft and arson done by the Japanese and indiscriminate carpet bombing by the Americans during the Battle of Manila (1945) led to the permanent loss of many of the ancient Gothic, Art-Deco, and Earthquake Baroque churches.[15]
Due to the heavy damages resulting from World War II, the Manila Cathedral underwent major rebuilding from 1946 to 1958. The Parish of San Miguel served as pro-cathedral or temporary cathedral of the local church until the Manila Cathedral was reopened and consecrated in 1958.
On December 11, 1948, the Apostolic Constitution Probe Noscitur further divided the Archdiocese of Manila by placing the northern part of the local church in the new Diocese of San Fernando. On November 25, 1961, the Archdiocese of Manila was again partitioned with the creation of the Diocese of Malolos for the province of Bulacan in the north and the Diocese of Imus for the province of Cavite in the South.
The archdiocese witnessed many grace-filled church events such as the Second Synod of Manila (1911), the Third Synod of Manila (1925), the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress (1937), the First Plenary Council of the Philippines (1953), the papal visit of Pope Paul VI (1970), the Fourth Synod of Manila (1979), the papal visits of Pope John Paul II (the first in 1981 and the second in 1995), the National Marian Year (1985), the National Eucharistic Year (1987), the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (1991), the Second Provincial Council of Manila (1996), the 4th World Meeting of Families (2003), and the papal visit of Pope Francis (2015).
The arms of the metropolitan see of Manila is an adaptation of the arms granted by Philip II of Spain to the "insigne y siempre leal (distinguished and ever loyal)" city of Manila in 1596. The silver crescent represents the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the Manila Cathedral and of the entire Philippines. The tower represents God himself whom the psalmist calls in Psalms 60 turris fortis contra inimicum (turris fortitudinis a facie inimici in the Gallician psalter). The three windows make the tower represent the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost, three Persons in one God. The sea lion represents the Philippines, then-an overseas territory of Spain, and the pilgrim's cross which may be easily fixed on the ground symbolizes both the faith of the Filipino people and their missionary role in spreading that faith.[18]
When O'Doherty died after Philippine independence in 1946, the coadjutor archbishopGabriel Reyes became the first native Filipino in the position. Reyes' successor, Archbishop Rufino Jiao Santos, became the first Filipino to become a cardinal in 1960. Since then, all archbishops were of Filipino origin and were created cardinals.
Antonio Realubin Tobias, appointed auxiliary bishop of Zamboanga in 1982, then bishop of the Diocese of Pagadian, Diocese of San Fernando in La Union, and finally Diocese of Novaliches until retirement in 2019
Francisco Mendoza de Leon, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Antipolo (September 1, 2007 – November 21, 2015), Coadjutor Bishop of Antipolo (November 22, 2015 – September 10, 2016) and 4th Bishop of the Diocese of Antipolo (September 10, 2016 – July 22, 2023).
Rufino Sescon Jr, 5th Bishop of the Diocese of Balanga (Bishop-Elect)
Formation of priests
The archdiocese administers San Carlos Seminary, the archdiocesan major seminary which caters to the formation of future priests for the archdiocese and for its suffragan dioceses. Located in Guadalupe Viejo, Makati, it has a pre-college program (senior high school and formation year), a college program (A.B., philosophy), and a graduate school (master's program in theology or pastoral ministry), as well as a formation houses for future priests committed to serve the Filipino-Chinese communities in the country (Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society) and a center for adult vocations (Holy Apostles Senior Seminary). The archdiocese also operates Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary for young men at the secondary school level. It is located a few blocks from San Carlos Seminary.
Schools
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila Educational System (RCAMES) comprises 27 archdiocesan and parochial schools. The archbishop of Manila exercises authority in each member school and appoints a superintendent for the entire system to implement decisions and resolve issues. The member schools are:[21]
^"Pope Orders Sharp Action; Archbishop of Manila Instructed to Excommunicate Philippine National Church Promoters", New York Times, New York, NY: December 29, 1902. p.7
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