Apostolic Vicariate of Caroní
Catholic apostolic vicariate in Venezuela
The Apostolic Vicariate (or Vicariate Apostolic) of Caroní (Latin: Apostolicus Vicariatus Caronensis) is a Latin Church missionary jurisdiction or apostolic vicariate of the Catholic Church in Venezuela.
It is immediately exempt to the Holy See and not part of any ecclesiastical province. Its cathedral, Catedral de Santa Elena, is located in the episcopal see of Santa Elena de Uairén in Venezuela's landlocked Bolívar state.
History
On 4 March 1922 Pope Pius XI established the Apostolic Vicariate of Caroní.
It lost territory in 1954 when the Apostolic Vicariate of Tucupita was established.
Incumbent Ordinaries
So far, all apostolic vicars were Capuchins
Benvenuto Diego Alonso y Nistal, OFMCap † (23 Dec. 1923 – 24 March 1938)
Constantino Gómez Villa, OFMCap † (14 July 1938 – 11 Oct. 1967)
Mariano Gutiérrez Salazar, OFMCap † (11 March 1968 – 23 Oct. 1995)
Santiago Pérez Sánchez, OFMCap † (28 May 1993 – 2 July 1994)
Jesús Alfonso Guerrero Contreras, OFMCap (6 Dec.
“Apostolic Vicariate of Caroní” enters the record as catholic apostolic vicariate in Venezuela. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Apostolic, Vicariate and Caroní can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q620276. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1954, 1923 and 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “Apostolic Vicariate of Caroní” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.