About The Archdiocese

The glorious chapter of the expansion of the Catholic Church in the East can be said to have begun after the European 'discovery' of the sea route to India in 1498. This helped the coming of the European missionaries to these lands, one of them being St. Francis Xavier, the great Apostle of the East and the Patron of the Missions. Goa is privileged to have been the starting point of his missionary journeys and the place where his sacred remains are preserved.

Goa was called the "Rome of the East" due to the central role it played in the evangelization of the East. One Goan priest, Fr. Joseph Vaz, who distinguished himself in the evangelization of Sri Lanka and is therefore acclaimed as the ' Apostle of Ceylon', was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 21st January, 1995. On 16 th January, 2000, he was declared Patron of the Archdiocese. Another Goan priest, Venerable Agnelo de Sousa, member of the Missionary Society of Pilar, is hopefully on the way to beatification.

Pope Clement VII erected the See of Goa on the 31st January, 1533. Its jurisdiction extended from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to China and Japan. On February 4, 1557, Pope Paul IV detached Goa from the Province of Lisbon and raised it to a Metropolitan Archdiocese, having as suffragans the dioceses of Cochin and Malacca (Malaysia). In the course of time, the Sees of Macau (China), Funay (Japan), Cranganore and Mylapore (India), Nanking and Peking (China), Mozambique (East Africa) and Daman (India) were created and made suffragans of Goa.

In 1572, Pope Gregory XIII, by his Brief dated March 15, acknowledged the Archbishop of Goa as the Primate of the East. By 1857, Goa had gained some more suffragans while, on the other hand, it had lost most of its overseas suffragans, to the exception of Macau and Mozambique. On 23rd January, 1886, Pope Leo XIII invested the Archbishop of Goa with the title of Patriarch of the East Indies. In the same year, the Archdiocese of Cranganore was suppressed and its title was annexed to the Diocese of Daman, and, after the suppression of the latter in 1928, to the Archdiocese of Goa, From 1928, then, this Archdiocese is known as "Goa and Daman," and its Archbishop is also the Titular Archbishop of Cranganore.

In 1940, the Diocese of Dili in East Timor was created as a suffragan of the See of Goa while Mozambique was detached from it in the same year, followed by the Dioceses of Cochin and Mylapore in 1950 and the Vicariates General of the Ghats (Districts of Belgaum, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Sangli) and of Canara (North Canara Dt.) in 1953.

By the end of 1961, Indian troops marched on Goa, Daman and Diu and the Portuguese sovereignty over these territories came to an end. The following year, the last Portuguese Patriarch-Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Most. Rev. José Vieira de Alvernaz, left India. In 1965, the overland territories of the Archdiocese (except Diu) were formed into what is known as the “Mission of Daman” and entrusted to the pastoral care of the members of the Society of the Missionaries of Saint Francis Xavier, commonly known as the Society of Pilar. When, on 30 th May, 1987, Goa became the 25 th State of the Indian Union, the districts of Daman and Diu were politically detached from Goa – as Dadra and Nagar Haveli had been some 35 years earlier. These four territories continue, however, to be under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman.

By the time the resignation of Patriarch Alvernaz was accepted by the Holy See in 1975, the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman had been governed by Goan Apostolic Administrators (Bishop Francisco Rebelo till 1972, and Bishop Raul N. Gonsalves till 1978). Meanwhile, as late as 1976, the Dioceses of Macau (China) and Dili in East Timor were detached and the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman was placed directly under the Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples.

By his Bull "Quoniam Archdioecesi", dated January 30 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Raul N. Gonsalves to the Archiepiscopal See of Goa and Daman, with the title of Patriarch "ad honorem" of the East Indies. Having taken canonical possession of the Archdiocese in the “Sé Catedral” at Old Goa, on the 5th of March of 1978, Most Rev Raul Nicolau Gonsalves became the 33rd Archbishop of Goa and Daman and the 6th Patriarch of the East Indies - the first Indian incumbent of that office.

By the Papal Bull “Inter Gravissimas” of Pope John Paul II, dated 12 th December, 2003, Most. Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrão, ordained Bishop on 10 th April, 1994 and serving the Archdiocese as its Auxiliary Bishop, was appointed Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch “ad honorem” of the East Indies. The public announcement of the appointment was made on the 16 th January, 2004 and he was officially installed at the “Sé Catedral” at Old Goa, on the 21 st March, 2004.