Attempt to create a jurisdictional Patriarchate in the Spanish Indies
King Ferdinand V of Castile asked Pope Leo X for establishing a patriarchate for the ecclesiastical government of the American territories discovered by the Spaniards. The Holy See was ever renuent to accept the establishment of such an autonomous Spanish American church and, on 11 May1524, Clement VII accepted to create it but only as honorific, without jurisdiction and without clergy. In addition, the Patriarch was banned to reside in America. Antonio de Rojas, archbishop of Granada and bishop of Palencia, was the first patriarch. The following patriarchs were the bishop of JaénEsteban Gabriel Merino (1530-1535) and the archbishop of Granada Fernando Niño de Guevara (not the homonymous cardinal) (1546-1552). After the Niño de Guevara's death the office remained vacant because Philip II, against the Holy See policy, wished an actual jurisdicional Patriarchate. Finally, the king agreed in 1591 to propose the archbishop of Mexico City (but who was then in Madrid as President of the Council of the Indies) Pedro Moya de Contreras. However, he died without taking the oath. In 1602, Philip III abandoned the idea of a fully jurisdicional Patriarchate and it turned into a merely aristocratic reward for noble clergymen[1].
Merge with the Spanish Military Vicariate
In 1705, the Patriarch Carlos de Borja Centellas was appointed by the Pope General Vicar of the Spanish Armies, but from 1736 on Clement XII merged the office of General Vicar of the Spanish Armies with the Patriarchate of the West Indies pro tempore et ad septenium (temporaly and for seven years), and from 1741 on to the Royal Palace's Chaplaincy[1]. The merge of the Patriarchate and the Military Vicariate was definitively decreed by Clement XIII in 1762[2]. In 1933, Patriarch Ramón Pérez Rodríguez was appointed bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta[3]. The previous year, the Republican Government had abolished the Military Vicariate. Thus, the Patriarchate remained vacant. During the Civil War, the Nationalists organized a religious military service and the Holy See appointed the Archbishop of ToledoIsidro Gomá as interim Pontifical Delegate. In 1940, Gomá died and the auxiliary bishop Gregorio Modrego was commissioned with the deceased cardinal's military duties. In 1942, Modrego was appointed bishop of Barcelona. During all that time, the Patriarchate remained vacant[2]. In 1946, the bishop of MadridLeopoldo Eijo y Garay was appointed Patriarch of the West Indies, but without the Military Ordinariate (a military archbisophric would be established in 1950). After Eijo's death this titular patriarchate has been remained vacant and it is not likely to be filled.
List of Patriarchs of the West Indies
Antonio de Rojas (1524), archbishop of Granada and bishop of Palencia[1]
Esteban Gabriel Merino (1524-1530), bishop of Jaén[1]
Fernando Niño de Guevara (1530-1535), archbishop of Granada[1]
Pedro Moya de Contreras (1592), archbishop of Mexico City and President of the Council of the Indies, not installed[1]
↑ abcdefg Hernández Ruigómez, Manuel: "Patriarcado de Indias", in Artola, M. (ed.): Enciclopedia de Historia de España, Madrid: Alianza, V, pp. 927-928
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