The Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

is part of the worldwide Roman

Roman Catholic (term)

The term Roman Catholic appeared in the English language at the beginning of the 17th century, to differentiate specific groups of Christians in communion with the Pope from others; comparable terms in other languages already existed...

 Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 and the curia

Curia (Roman Catholic Church)

In Roman Catholicism, a curia consists of a group of officials who assist in the governance of a particular Church. These curias range from the relatively simple diocesan curia, to the larger patriarchal curias, to the Roman Curia, which is the central government of the Catholic Church.Other...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

Present situation

The CIA World Factbook reports that 85% of the population of Puerto Rico is Roman Catholic, with the remaining 15% divided among Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism. Some people put the Catholic percentage at 70% or more. Approximately 3,400,000 Puerto Ricans practice Catholicism. Administratively, the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico is divided into five dioceses and one archdiocese.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth

Commonwealth (United States)

Four of the constituent states of the United States officially designate themselves Commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia....

, the world's oldest colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

. "Its deepest roots are Latino", Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves

Roberto González Nieves

Roberto Octavio González Nieves, OFM is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico and the current Archbishop of San Juan.-Early life and education:...

 of San Juan said in 2007, "U.S. rule began in 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...

, but indigenous

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, African and Spanish cultures "shaped its identity for 400 years" and that influence "cannot be undone overnight." The shift from Spanish to U.S. rule brought a wave of anti-Catholic sentiment that led to the prohibition of the processions that are a mainstay of Latin American religious practice, as well as government policies that prohibited schools from teaching in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. Since the approval of a Puerto Rican Constitution in 1952, however, popular religious traditions such as processions and festivals honoring communities' patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

s have taken root again.

List of dioceses

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico
  Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico
  The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, comprising the northeast portion of the island of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States...
  
  
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico and consists of the northern part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth. It is led by Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres...
  
  
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Caguas
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Caguas
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Caguas is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Caribbean and consists of the east and southeast part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth. The diocese is led by a Bishop Ruben González Medina, C.M.F...
  
  
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Mayagüez
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Mayagüez
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mayagüez is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and consists of the western part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth...
  
  
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Ponce
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Ponce
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ponce is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and consists of the southern part of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth. The diocese is led by a prelate bishop which pastors the motherchurch in the...
  
  
• Roman Catholic Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao
  Roman Catholic Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao
  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and consists of part east and the northeast of the island of Puerto Rico, an American commonwealth.The diocese is led by Bishop Eusebio Ramos Morales...
  
   – erected March 2008

Episcopal conference

The bishops in Puerto Rico form the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference

Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference

The Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference is the episcopal conference of the Roman Catholic bishops of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States.-Dioceses:*Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico...

 .
The episcopal conference

Episcopal Conference

In the Roman Catholic Church, an Episcopal Conference, Conference of Bishops, or National Conference of Bishops is an official assembly of all the bishops of a given territory...

 allows the bishops to set certain norms for all of Puerto Rico, including the form of the liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

.

See also

• List of the Catholic bishops of the United States

External links

• Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña (C.E.P.). GCatholic.com website