Pope Francis moves the primal seat of Argentina to Santiago del Estero

Pope Francis decided to transfer the primal see of Argentina, until now in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, to the Diocese of Santiago del Estero, elevating it to the rank of Archbishopric See.

The decision, they explained, is due to a historical recognition of the first Diocese in the country, and “does not entail any jurisdictional change in the Argentine ecclesiastical organization.”

As reported this Monday through the agency AICA by the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, Mons. Miroslaw Adamczyk, the Holy Father decided to “transfer the title of Primate of Argentina from the Metropolitan See of Buenos Aires to the See of Santiago del Estero and, in accordance with canon 438 of the Code of Law Canonical, granting the title of archbishop to the bishop for the time from the same See of Santiago del Estero”, Mons. Vicente Bokalic.

In that sense, he decided to “elevate the diocesan See of Santiago del Estero to the rank and dignity of Archbishop’s See, remaining as suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Tucumán.”

Consequently, “repeal the Decree of the Sacred Congregation Concistorial Cum ecclesiastical province Bonaërensisof January 29, 1936, with which the Archbishop was conferred for the time of Buenos Aires the title of Primate of Argentina.”

Upon hearing the news, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mons. Jorge García Cuerva; and the Bishop of Santiago del Estero, Mons. Vicente Bokalic, issued a joint statementaddressed to the people of God, considering this fact “an important reparation in the ecclesiastical history of our country.”

The mention of Primate See is “a title of honor”, ​​explain the prelates, which Buenos Aires had had since 1936, a distinctive “reserved for the first diocese in a national territory”, but which nevertheless “does not carry with it any jurisdictional change in the Argentine ecclesiastical organization”, they clarify.

For this reason, they encourage us to live this papal decision “with a deep joy of living in the truth, which always makes us free and also as an invitation to have an integrative view of the national territory in a renewed federal purpose, even from the ecclesial structure.”

The Pontifical Bull that orders the transfer “will be executed in Buenos Aires on Sunday, August 25 and in Santiago del Estero on Saturday, September 7,” they added.

Mother of cities, mother of dioceses

The papal decision, the bishops explain in their letter, “has its historical foundation in the fact that in 1570, Saint Pius V created the then-called Diocese of Tucumán, based in what is today the ancient city of Santiago del Estero.” .

“This happens because, in 1563, by order of the King of Spain, the old Tucumán was separated from the jurisdiction of Chile and became dependent on the Audiencia of Charcas,” they detail.

“The pontifical document that creates that new ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to pastorally care for the territory divided from Chile, is dated May 14, 1570. From the beginning, the then Diocese of Tucumán included Córdoba, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero , Salta, Jujuy, Tarija and Nueva Orán”, they add.

For this reason, the Cathedral of that first diocese, of what would later become the Argentine Republic, was the Church of San Pedro and San Pablo, located in the territory of the current Diocese of Santiago del Estero.

“In 1699, when the Episcopal See was established in the City of Córdoba, it subsumed the territory of the primitive Diocese of Tucumán,” they explain, creating only in 1907 the now Diocese of Santiago del Estero, “in whose territory the old and first Diocese had functioned.” Episcopal See of Tucumán, where the Gospel of the Lord resonated for the first time, in the voice of a successor of the Apostles, in these lands whose future will be Argentina.”

The decision of the Holy Father, then, occurs in honor of the historical facts, which from 1936 until now located it in Buenos Aires, for having been the first Archbishopric.

“Santiago del Estero for centuries coined the glorious title of ‘Mother of Cities’, and chosen to be a center for the dissemination of the Gospel, it is also ‘Mother of Diocese’ in the Argentine Republic; Therefore, there are plenty of reasons to honor her as the Primate,” conclude Mons. García Cuerva and Mons. Bokalic.