Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana


The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana is one of three Catholic archdioceses in Cuba.

History

This Latin Rite or Roman Rite diocese was erected on 10 September 1787 by Pope Pius VI, from the territory of the then–Diocese of Santiago de Cuba. When it was erected, the new diocese encompassed the secular provinces of Santa Clara, Matanzas, Havana, and Pinar del Río in Cuba and Florida and Louisiana in what is now the United States of America. On 25 April 1793 the diocese lost territory for what would be the first of four territorial losses when the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas was erected. The diocese again lost territory on 20 February 1903 when the dioceses of Pinar del Río and Cienfuegos were erected, and then again on 10 December 1912 upon the erection of the diocese of Matanzas. Eventually the diocese was elevated to the Metropolitan See of Sancti Christophori de Habana, San Cristobal de la Habana on 6 January 1925.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino as Archbishop of Havana on 26 April 2016. The Archdiocese had one auxiliary bishop, Bishop Juan de Dios Hernández-Ruiz, S.J. at the beginning of 2019, in which year he was appointed Bishop of Pinar del Rio.
The Archdiocese encompasses and has two suffragan dioceses, Matanzas and Pinar del Río. According to a 2004 estimate there were a total of 3.9 million people living within the confines of the diocese, 71.8% or 2.8 million of whom were Roman Catholic. There were 49 diocesan priests and 62 religious priests, totaling 111 priests serving the faithful of the diocese. With these figures, there were approximately 25,225 Catholics per priest. There were 23 permanent deacons and 79 men-religious and 348 women-religious. In 2004, there were 102 established parishes.

Ordinaries of San Cristobal de la Habana