Goanese schism

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Goan schism , also Indo-Goanese schism or Goan schism , is the name for a jurisdiction dispute of the Catholic Church in India in the 19th century .

Padroado

When the Portuguese advanced as far as the East Indies and China around 1500 , the Portuguese missionaries followed them. The Pope gave the kings of Portugal the padroado , the unrestricted right of patronage . The Portuguese king thus acquired the right to appoint bishops and to distribute church offices. At the same time, he was obliged to establish numerous new dioceses .

Goa became the seat of archbishopric in 1558 for an area from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan.

propaganda

When Pope Gregory XV. Established in 1622 the " Congregatio de Propaganda Fide " (called Propaganda for short ) and sent missionaries to India past Portugal, arduous competition for centuries with the Padroado system was inevitable.

schism

When the Dutch and English became masters of the Indian Ocean and only an insignificant stretch of land near Goa was left of Portugal's colonial power, Portugal did not want to renounce its ecclesiastical rights in India.

Because Rome now sent Vicars Apostolic to India, who should no longer be subordinate to Goa, since Portugal could no longer fulfill the obligations entered into and Pope Gregory XVI. In 1838 four Portuguese bishoprics abolished, a schism broke out .

The tensions and disputes peaked around 1850 and ended in 1862 when the Pope reinstated an archbishop in Goa. But in many places the "double jurisdiction" followed, i. H. the coexistence of patroado and propaganda communities in a small space. There were also Thomas Christians .

  • Under Pope Gregory XVI. there was a schism in 1838

  • Under Pope Pius IX. the schism reached its climax around 1850

  • Under Pope Leo XIII. an equalization with Portugal was reached in 1886

The End

It was not until the Concordat of 1886 between the Pope and the Crown of Portugal that conditions were established to some extent through the radical land consolidation of the dioceses with the simultaneous introduction of the Roman episcopal hierarchy and the final assignment of the dioceses to the various mission orders and societies.

In compensation, the Archbishop of Goa was awarded the title of "Patriarch of East India".

literature

  • Karl Thürer SJ, At the Gates of the East , Berchmanskolleg Pullach-Munich, 1933.