ARCHDIOCESE OF BANGALORE
Pope Pius XII by the Bull “FeliciusIncrescente” (happily growing), created on 13th February 1940 the Diocese of Bangalore, carving it out from the Diocese of Mysore and Most Rev. Bishop Maurice Bernard Benoit Joseph was appointed as the first Bishop of the newly erected Diocese of Bangalore. St. Francis Xavier’s Church was designated as the Cathedral. Most Rev. Dr. Thomas Pothacamury who was the Bishop of Guntur was transferred to Bangalore and became the First Indian Bishop of Bangalore in 1942. St. Francis Xavier Cathedral was consecrated on 24thJanuary 1948.
On 19thSeptember, 1953, Pope Pius XII issued the Decree “Mutant Res” (things are changing) by which Bangalore was elevated to Archdiocese. Most Rev. Peter Machado is the present Archbishop of Bangalore from 2018.
The Archdiocese promotes the spiritual and temporal needs of all the three Rites were adequately and taken care of with much coordination. Thus the Archdiocese of Bangalore now comprises six civil districts of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Kolara, Ramanagara and Tumakuru. These cover an area of 27,123 sq km with a total population of 1,71,65,595 as per the census of 2011. Currently the Catholic Christian population is 3,59,224 (2019).It is divided into 14 Deaneries with 134 (2019) parishes under the care of the Archdiocesan and Religious priests in the Archdiocese.