Patriarchate of the West Indies
The Holy See was not keen to accept the establishment of such an autonomous Spanish American church and, on 11 May 1524, Clement VII agreed to create it but only as honorific, without jurisdiction and without clergy.Finally, the king agreed in 1591 to propose the archbishop of Mexico City (but who was actually resident in Madrid as president of the Council of the Indies), Pedro Moya de Contreras.[5] By 1816, in recognition of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo being the first established in the Western Hemisphere, Pope Pius VII declared that its resident archbishop can use the title "Primate of the Indies.During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists organized a religious military service and the Holy See appointed Cardinal Isidro Gomá, the archbishop of Toledo, as interim pontifical delegate.Since Eijo's death, this titular patriarchate has remained vacant; and in 1954, the Concordat between the Dominican Republic and the Vatican ratified the use of Santo Domingo's archbishop being granted the position of "Primate of the Indies.