(Paris) The new Archbishop of Fort de France in the French overseas department of Martinique in the Caribbean is the Dominican, David Macaire. Pope Francis appointed the former prior of the Dominican convent of Sainte Baume and exorcist of the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon on 7th of March.
According Riposte Catholique, Archbishop Macaire belongs to a new generation of priests in France. Along the lines of Benedict XVI, he shows sensitivity to the traditional Roman rite. Father Macaire was chaplain of the Catholic Pathfinders and worked closely together with the traditional Bishop Dominique Rey of Frejus-Toulon in Provence.
Colonized in 1635 by France, the area came under French rule in 1664. Approximately 390,000, of which 85 percent are of black African descent. They came in the 17th / 18th Centuries as slave labor on the plantation systems. Slavery in Martinique was abolished in 1848. In 2010, a majority of the electorate voted against greater independence from France.
In 1850, Pope Pius IX. made the Diocese of Martinique a suffragan of the Archdiocese of French Bordeaux. The diocese comprised the entire island. In 1967 it was raised by Pope Paul VI. to the Archdiocese of Saint Pierre and Fort de France with two suffragan sees in the territory of the other French West Indies.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riposte Catholique
Image: Riposte Catholique
AMDG
