| The history of the Catholic Church in Bhopal goes back to
1785, when Salvador Bourbon, a descendant of the French Royal Catholic Family of the Bourbons, came to Bhopal to work for the reigning Begum Mamola at Bhopal. In 1829 Bhopal was officially a part of Agra Vicariate. It was Bishop Hartmann OFM. Cap., who is in a very real sense the founder of the Church of Bhopal. In 1873 he acquired a plot of land from the Muslim Ruler of Bhopal and built the first little Church, which, in 1964 became the Cathedral of the newly erected Archdiocese of Bhopal. In 1886 the Diocese of Allahabad was formed and Bhopal was then attached to this new Diocese.
On March 11, 1935, when the Mission Territory of Indore was elevated to Prefecture Apostolic, the territory of Bhopal State was separated from Allahabad diocese and attached to Indore.
In 1958 the capital of the State of Madhya Pradesh was shifted from Nagpur to Bhopal and this necessitated the creation of the new Archdiocese of Bhopal. Most Rev.
Dr. Eugene D'Souza was transferred from Nagpur to Bhopal to be its first Archbishop. After steering the life of the Church in Madhya Pradesh for 30 years through the Archdiocese of Bhopal, Archbishop Eugene laid down his office and handed over to Bishop
Pascal Topno S.J., of Ambikapur, who was promoted as Archbishop of Bhopal on 20th May 1994.
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Archdiocese
of Bhopal
