MEDELLÍN, ARCHDIOCESE OF
MEDELLÍN, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - An archdiocese whose see is the city of Medellín, capital of the department of Antioquia in Colombia. It covers an area of 15,000 sq. km. with a population of 800,000, all Catholic. It has 64 parishes served by 275 diocesan priests and 91 religious; a conciliar seminary; 23 male and 145 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 267).
The city was founded in 1675 by settlers from Antioquia at an altitude of 1,500 m. beside the Central Cordillera in a very fertile valley; it is a commercial and industrial center because of the mineral wealth of the district. The diocese was erected by Pius IX on 4 Feb. 1868. Pope Leo XIII raised it to an archdiocese on 24 Feb. 1902, separating it from the province of Santa Fe de Bogotá. The cathedral was begun in 1890 to a design by C. Carré; it is in Romanesque style. The seminary was built by the Salesian G. Buscaglione.
The church of the Vera Cruz dates from 1682. It has a flourishing Jesuit college.
UNIVERSITY
The Pontifical Bolivarian University was founded on 15 Sept. 1936 by Msgr. Tiberio de J. Salazar y Herrera, titular archbishop of Rizzo and apostolic administrator of the archdiocese of Medellín.
The initial nucleus consisted of the Faculty of Law and Political Science. This was followed by the bachelor section, then called the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and the preparatory section began to function. On 22 Feb. 1937 the national government recognized its juridical personality by Executive Resolution no. 48 of the same year. Later the government approved the statutes, regulations and programmes of the various faculties by Resolution no. 653 of 16 Oct. 1938. In 1938 the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning was created; in 1951 the Faculty of Electrical Engineering began to function. The University also has a School of Commerce and includes a women’s study circle which maintains the women’s Faculty of Art and Decoration of the College of the Sacred Heart. The University has not neglected its social work and provides free evening classes for workers; it admits poor young people to workshops where they learn the trades of mechanic, electrician and cabinet-maker.
By decree of 16 Aug. 1945 the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies granted the Institute, nine years after its foundation, the title of Pontifical. Its official organ is the review Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, considered one of the most serious publications in Latin America, to which distinguished thinkers contribute. For the Faculty of Law and Political Science there is the Revista de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas, which, from its inception, has enjoyed wide circulation. Today the University of Medellín has four men’s faculties; the women’s Faculty of Art and Decoration is under its high direction, and the corresponding academic degrees are conferred in the name of the Pontifical Bolivarian University. The degrees granted by the University are at present recognized by the national government, which gives the University financial support. It began with 70 law students and 25 professors. Today it has 2,000 students from all over the country and from some neighbouring nations; hence a university city for 5,000 students is now being built on a 20-hectare site owned by the University.
Felice Henao Botero