What is currently the territory of the Republic of
El Salvador previously was part of the Spanish colonial
Captaincy General (governorship) of
Guatemala and, ecclesiastically, of the Archdiocese of Guatemala. Until 1842, there were four church regions in El Salvador, which reported to the San Salvador region, the most important one: Santa Ana, Sonsonate, San Vicente and San Miguel. •
Pope Gregory XVI erected the
Diocese of the Divine Savior (in Spanish,
El Salvador means "The Savior"), separating the territory of the Republic of El Salvador from the Archdiocese of Guatemala, by
Papal bull dated 28 September 1842, constituting it as a suffragan diocese of the
Archdiocese of Guatemala. • On 22 February 1913, it was promoted as
Metropolitan Archdiocese of San Salvador / Sancti Salvatoris in America (Latin), having lost territory to establish as first
suffragan sees
Diocese of San Miguel and
Diocese of Santa Ana • It lost territories again on 18 December 1943, to establish
Diocese of San Vicente, and on 30 December 1987, to establish
Diocese of Chalatenango, both as its suffragans. •
Pope John Paul II undertook
papal visits to the diocese in March 1983 and February 1996.
Twentieth Century policy Under three archbishops,
Luis Chávez y González,
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, and
Arturo Rivera y Damas, the archdiocese saw over fifty years of a progressive pastoral ministry influenced by the currents of the
Second Vatican Council and a Latin American church trend that later was known as
Liberation Theology. Critics interpreted the Church's advocacy for the poor as fomenting a
socialist revolution and targeted the clergy for assassination. Two bishops, including Archbishop Romero, were assassinated, as were twenty six priests (including Fr.
Rutilio Grande), three nuns and countless catechists and Church workers. The post-Civil War period saw a return to traditional spirituality under the watch of the conservative Archbishop
Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, a former military chaplain and member of
Opus Dei.
Sexual abuse cases In November 2015,
sex abuse scandals in the Archdiocese of San Salvador became public when the archdiocese's third highest ranking priest, Jesus Delgado, who was also the biographer and personal secretary of the Salvadoran Archbishop
Oscar Romero was dismissed by the archdiocese after its investigation showed that he had molested a girl, now 42 years of age, when she was between the ages of 9 and 17. In November 2019, the archdiocese acknowledged sex abuse committed by a priest identified as Leopoldo Sosa Tolentino in 1994 and issued a public apology to his victim. Tolentino was suspended from ministry and began the
canonical trial process. Another El Salvador priest was laicized in 2019 after pleading guilty to sex abuse in a Vatican trial and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in a criminal trial. == Ecclesiastical province ==