The Catholic Church in India is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope. There are over 23 million Catholics in India,Factfile: Catholics around the world on BBC news. representing around 1.57% of the total population, and the Catholic Church is the single largest Christian church in India. There are 10,701 parishes that make up 174 dioceses and eparchies, which are organised into 30 ecclesiastical provinces. Of these, 132 dioceses are of the Latin Church, 31 of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and 11 of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Despite the very small percentage-wise population that Indian Catholics make up in the country, India still has the second-largest Christian population in Asia, after the Catholic Church in the Philippines. All Catholic bishops, from all dioceses, come together to form the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, first convened in British India, in 1944. on CBCI website. The ambassador representing the Vatican City, to the Government of India, is the Apostolic Nuncio to India. The diplomatic mission of the Holy See to India, similar to an embassy, was established as the Apostolic delegation to the East Indies in 1881. It was raised to an Internunciature by Pope Pius XII in 1948, and to a full Apostolic Nunciature by Pope Paul VI in 1967. Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli is the current Apostolic Nuncio, named by Pope Francis on 13 March 2021. The Apostolic Nunciature is located at 50-C, Niti Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

The majority, about 78.3%, belong to the Latin Church, the rest are Syrian Catholic Christians. The Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, makes up around 19.7% of Indian Catholics, while the Syro-Malankara Church accounts for approximately 2.0%. These figures reflect the diverse liturgical traditions within Indian Catholicism, with Eastern Catholic communities primarily based in the Malabar region (present-day state of Kerala).

History Early Christianity in India

Christianity reached India in AD 52 when Thomas the Apostle reached Muziris in Malabar Coast presently called the state of Kerala. He preached Christianity in Eastern and Western coasts of India.Stephen Andrew Missick.Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the Assyrian Church and the Christians of St. Thomas in India. Journal of Assyrian Academic studies. These Saint Thomas Christians are known as Nasrani, which is a Syriac term meaning Follower of the Nazarene Jesus. The Christian community in India later came under the jurisdiction of Bishops from Persia. Historians estimate this date to be around the fourth century.Were these Christians infected with Nestorianism before 1599? on Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. Thomas Christians. As a result, they inherited the East Syriac liturgy and traditions of Persia. Later, when the Western missionaries reached India, they accused this community of practicing Nestorianism, a heresy that separates Christ's divinity from his human nature. They formed the most ancient church, diocese, and metropolitan province in the Indian subcontinent and the Far East. The East Syriac diocese of India was elevated as a metropolitan province in the eighth century by Patriarch Ishoyab III. In the words of Pope John Paul II, this community, while being a part of the East Syriac Church, had never broken the communion with the worldwide Catholic Church explicitly.Mar Thomma Margam by Pathikulangara Varghese Kathanar Today, the continuity of this early Christian community is found in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Oriental Church in communion with Catholic Church, following East Syriac traditions.

Early missionaries

John of Monte Corvino was a Franciscan sent to China to become prelate of Peking in around 1307. He travelled from Persia and moved down by sea to India, in 1291, to the Madras region or "Country of St. Thomas". There he preached for thirteen months and baptised about one hundred persons. From there Monte Corvino wrote home, in December 1291 (or 1292). That is one of the earliest noteworthy accounts of the Coromandel coast furnished by any Western European. Travelling by sea from Mailapur, he reached China in 1294, appearing in the capital "Cambaliech" (now Beijing).Odoric of Pordenone (Nendeln, Liechtenstein, 1967), Henry Yule, trans. Cathy and the Way Thither vol. II, P-142.

Friar Odoric of Pordenone arrived in India in 1321. He visited Malabar, touching at Pandarani (20 m. north of Calicut), at Cranganore, and at Kulam or Quilon, proceeding thence, apparently, to Ceylon and to the shrine of St Thomas at Maylapur near Madras. He writes he had found the place where Thomas was buried.

Father Jordanus Catalanus, a French Dominican missionary, followed in 1321–22. He reported to Rome, apparently from somewhere on the west coast of India, that he had given Christian burial to four martyred monks. Jordanus is known for his 1329 "Mirabilia" describing the marvels of the East: he furnished the best account of Indian regions and the Christians, the products, climate, manners, customs, fauna and flora given by any European in the Middle Ages – superior even to Marco Polo's.

The Diocese of Quilon headquartered at Kollam is the first Roman Catholic diocese in India in the state of Kerala, first erected on 9 August 1329 and re-erected on 1 September 1886. In 1329 Pope John XXII (in captivity at Avignon) erected Quilon as the first Diocese in the whole Indies as suffragan to the Archdiocese of Sultany in Persia, through the decree "Romanus Pontifix" dated 9 August 1329. By a separate Bull "Venerabili Fratri Jordano", the same Pope, on 21 August 1329 appointed the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani de Severac (OP) as the first Bishop of Quilon. (Copies of the Orders and the related letters issued by Pope John XXII to Bishop Jordanus Catalani (OP) and to the diocese of Quilon are documented and preserved in the diocesan archives). In 1347, Giovanni de Marignolli visited the shrine of St Thomas near the modern Madras, and then proceeded to what he calls the kingdom of Saba, and identifies with the Sheba of Scripture, but which seems from various particulars to have been Java. Taking ship again for Malabar on his way to Europe, he encountered great storms.

Another prominent Indian traveller was Joseph, priest over Cranganore. He journeyed to Babylon in 1490 and then sailed to Europe and visited Portugal, Rome, and Venice before returning to India. He helped to write a book about his travels titled The Travels of Joseph the Indian which was widely disseminated across Europe.

Arrival of the Portuguese In 1453, the fall of Constantinople, a bastion of Christianity in Asia Minor to Islamic Ottoman Empire, marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire, and severed European trade links by land with Asia. This massive blow to Christendom spurred the Age of Discovery as Europeans were seeking alternative routes east by sea along with the goal of forging alliances with pre-existing Christian nations. Along with pioneer Portuguese long-distance maritime travellers, that reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, came Portuguese missionaries who introduced the Latin Catholic church in India. They made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala, which at that time were following Eastern Christian practices and were under the jurisdiction of Church of the East.

In the 16th century, the proselytism of Asia was linked to the Portuguese colonial policy. The Papal bull Romanus Pontifex,See full text pp.13-20 (Latin) and pp.20-26 (English) in European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648, ed. Frances Gardiner Davenport (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1917–37) – Google Books. Reprint edition, 4 vols., (October 2004), Lawbook Exchange, written on 8 January 1455 by Pope Nicholas V to King Afonso V of Portugal, confirmed to the Crown of Portugal dominion over all lands discovered or conquered during the age of discovery. Further, the patronage for the propagation of the Christian faith (see "Padroado") in Asia was given to the Portuguese. The missionaries of the different orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Augustinians, etc.) flocked out with the conquerors, and began at once to build churches along the coastal districts where the Portuguese power made itself felt.

The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the neo-apostles who reached Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498 along with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who was seeking to form anti-Islamic alliances with pre-existing Christian nations.Britannica CD 97, S.V "Gama, Vasco da " The lucrative spice trade was further temptation for the Portuguese crown. When he and the Portuguese missionaries arrived they found no Christians in the country, except in Malabar known as St. Thomas Christians who represented less than 2% of the total populationMegan Galbraith Catholic Church of India Responds with Leadership Field note on Glocal Health Council website. and the then-largest Christian church within India. The Christians were friendly to Portuguese missionaries at first; there was an exchange of gifts between them, and these groups were delighted at their common faith.Mathias Mundadan, (1967), "The Arrival of Portuguese in India and Saint Thomas Christians under Mar Jacob"

During the second expedition, the Portuguese fleet comprising 13 ships and 18 priests, under Captain Pedro Álvares Cabral, anchored at Cochin on 26 November 1500. Cabral soon won the goodwill of the Raja of Cochin. He allowed four priests to do apostolic work among the early Christian communities scattered in and around Cochin. Thus Portuguese missionaries established Portuguese Mission in 1500. Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy, got permission from the Kochi Raja to build two church edifices – namely Santa Cruz Basilica (founded 1505) and St. Francis Church (founded 1506) using stones and mortar which was unheard of at that time as the local prejudices were against such a structure for any purpose other than a royal palace or a temple.

Primate of the East

In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the East Indies were under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Lisbon. On 12 June 1514, Cochin, Goa-Anjediva and Bombay-Bassein became the prominent fields of missionary activity; under the newly created Diocese of Funchal in Madeira. In 1534, Pope Paul III, by the Bull Quequem Reputamus, raised Funchal as an archdiocese and Goa as its suffragan, deputing the whole of India under the diocese of Goa. This created an episcopal see – suffragan to Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the Cape of Good Hope to China.

Portuguese explorers arrived in Chennai in 1523 and built the Santhome Church over the tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle, it was the first church in Chennai (Madras). In 1545, Francis Xavier visited this church, prayed in the Tomb of St Thomas and stayed for about one year before his Apostolic trip to China. This church was later elevated to the status of a cathedral in 1606 by Pope Paul V, with the inauguration of the Diocese of Saint Thomas of Mylapore at the request of Portuguese King. Later the cathedral church was rebuilt by the British in 1896 with the style of Neo Gothic. It was made a basilica in 1927 by Pope Pius XII.