Mexico City
About this date: These are institutional dates after the 1521 conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, not the founding of the city or the beginning of every local religious tradition.
Mexico City's diocese was canonically erected in 1530 and elevated to an archdiocese in 1546, in the setting of Spanish conquest and the development of New Spain. Its later metropolitan relationship with Manila makes the Americas-Asia connection concrete.
Historical context
The label Global Centers identifies a network of later Christian institutions, not a historical ranking or a claim that Christianity in the Americas is a single homogeneous experience.
Key points
- The archdiocese's Spanish-language history distinguishes erection in 1530 from elevation in 1546.
- Manila's official history records its earlier suffragan relationship with Mexico.
- The church's colonial setting, indigenous communities, and later local development should not be reduced to an unqualified triumphal story.
Sources and further reading
- John Paul II: Guadalupe homily, 23 January 1999
The source for the linked Marian and Emmanuel reading, not for the diocese's institutional dates. - Archdiocese of Mexico: institutional history