Archbishop of Lahore
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Archdiocese of Lahore Archidioecesis Lahorensis لاہور کے میٹروپولیٹن |
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Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore
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| Location | |
| Country |  Pakistan |
| Ecclesiastical province | Lahore |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 23,069 km2 (8,907 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2004) 25,000,000 570,000 (2.3%) |
| Information | |
| Rite | Latin Rite |
| Cathedral | Sacred Heart Cathedral, Lahore |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Sebastian Francis Shaw OFM |
| Website | |
| www.archdiocese-lahore.com | |
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore is a Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese in Punjab province, Pakistan.
Its cathedral episcopal see is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Lahore.
It was founded in 1880 as Apostolic Vicariate of Punjab, on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Agra (now also a Metropolitan Archbishopric).
On 1 September 1886 it was promoted and renamed after its see as Diocese of Lahore.
It lost vast territories repeatedly:
On 23 April 1994 the diocese was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan Archdiocese. Fr. Lawrence Saldanha was appointed Archbishop of Lahore by pope John Paul II.
On 7 April 2011 Archbishop Saldanha retired as Archbishop of Lahore.
On 18 December 2011, the archdiocese began celebrations to mark its 125th anniversary. Seventy-five priests and 200 catechists served then in 608 Mass centres in the archdiocese.
Pope Francis on 3 July 2013 appointed Fr. Joseph Arshad of the Lahore Archdiocese as the bishop of the Faisalabad Diocese.
Its ecclesiastical province comprises the Metropolitan's own archdiocese and the following suffragan bishoprics:
The Sacred Heart Cathedral is the principal church of the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese is also home to St. Joseph’s Church, Lahore, the oldest church of the Punjab, built in 1853.
The Archdiocese also publishes the Catholic Naqib, the oldest Urdu-language Catholic journal, founded in Lahore in 1929.
In 1964 the Diocese opened the 215 bed Bethania Hospital, Sialkot which focuses mainly on preventing and treating TB. In 2008 it was treating 60,000 patients a year.
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Wikipedia