Teodoro de Faria
His Excellency, The Most ReverendDom
Teodoro de Faria
GOIH
Bishop Emeritus of Funchal
Teodoro de Faria in 1982
ChurchCatholic Church
ArchdiocesePatriarchate of Lisbon
ProvinceLisbon
DioceseFunchal
SeeFunchal
PredecessorFrancisco Antunes Santana
SuccessorAntónio José Cavaco Carrilho
Previous postVice-Rector of the Portuguese Pontifical College (1966)
Orders
Ordination22 September 1956
Consecration10 March 1982by Maximilien, Cardinal von Furstenberg, Aurelio, Cardinal Sabattani and Maurílio Gouveia, Archbishop of Évora
RankBishop
Personal details
Born(1930-08-24)24 August 1930
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Died23 August 2025(2025-08-23) (aged 94)
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

DomTeodoro de FariaGOIH (24 August 1930 – 23 August 2025) was a Portuguese Roman Catholic prelate, who served as Bishop of Funchal between 1982 and 2007.[1]

Biography

De Faria was born in Funchal on 24 August 1930. He was ordained priest on 22 September 1956. Ten years after his ordination he would be appointed Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College in Rome in 1966 and later Rector of the Pontifical College and the Church of Saint Anthony of the Portuguese.[2]

He would later become a member of the Apostolic Union of the Clergy and the Center for Sindonology. He gave conferences, retreats and courses in various parts of the world. He was the representative of Portugal in Rome in the Secretariats for Ecumenism, Emigration, Tourism and Pilgrimages.[2]

He was Secretary of the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, António II, in the conclaves that elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II.

He would later be consecrated[3] in Rome on 16 May 1982, in the Church of Saint Anthony in Campo Marzio as Bishop of Funchal in 1982, in the early years of Madeira's political autonomy, and effectively taking office on 16 May that year. He took possession of the Diocese on 30 May of the same year.[4][3]

In 1986 was appointed President of the Portuguese Episcopal Commission for Migration and Tourism, and two years after he was elected member of the Pontifical Commission for Migrants and Itinerant People, having participated in Rome in several Congresses.[5]

In his capacity as Bishop he was a representative of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference at Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community.[2][5]

During his term as Bishop of Funchal, de Faria hosted the visit of Pope John Paul II to the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo, which were under his ecclesiastical jurisdiction.[5][6][7]

In 2006 he submitted his resignation from office to Pope Benedict XVI, due to having reached his age limit in office.[8][2]

Child abuse policies

During his tenure has Bishop of Funchal, de Faria publicly defended,[4] and was accused of pressuring Portuguese judicial authorities, Father Frederico Cunha who ended up being convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison for child abuse by the Court of Santa Cruz.

At the time, de Faria claimed that the Cunha was being prosecuted based on unfounded grounds.[9][10][11]

Cunha, although convicted, would end up escaping on his first probation period, in 1998, by taking a car from the Portuguese mainland, he was serving sentence in a prison in the mainland, to Madrid, and from there to Brazil, where he lived.[12]

de Faria has committed himself to silence[13] on this case since the conviction of Cunha.[9][10][11] In September 2020, de Faria still believed in the innocence of Cunha.[14]

Bishop Emeritus of Funchal

As Emeritus Bishop of Funchal, de Faria has led a low-profile presence in Madeiran society, having publicly appeared solely in major religious and academics events on the island.[15]

Nevertheless, he has criticized his successor, Dom António Carrilho, regarding the need for parish restructuring in the Diocese of Funchal. de Faria considered that in Madeira, "some parishes are only called parishes due to pity",[16] arguing that there are places where the parish priest has two or three parishes, and every year there are one or two baptized, some of which are ceremonies of faithful living abroad, but choose their land to celebrate the sacraments.

Given the above, he considered that the principle established by Bishop Fra' David de Sousa, who was Bishop of Funchal between 1957 and 1965, should be reintroduced in the Diocese, i.e. there should be a parish per, at least two thousand people. Teodoro argued that parish restructuring is vital, specially after the great emigration waves to Venezuela and to South Africa.[16]

On 28 July 2018, he was co-consecrator of José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, Head Librarian and Head Archivist of the Holy Roman Church.[17]

Death

De Faria died on 23 August 2025, one day before his 95th birthday.[18]

Honours

National orders

Other honours

  • On the end of April 2017, Funchal's City Hall, led by then Mayor Miguel Albuquerque, decided that to honor Bishop Teodoro by naming a 430m avenue after his name, Avenida Dom Teodoro Faria, in São Martinho.[20]

References

  1. ^"Bishop Teodoro de Faria [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2020-02-04.
  2. ^ abcd"Anuário Católico". www.anuariocatolicoportugal.net. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  3. ^ abCheney, David M. "Bishop Teodoro de Faria [Catholic-Hierarchy]". www.catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  4. ^ ab"O silêncio ensurdecedor da Igreja do Funchal". www.dnoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  5. ^ abcPortugal, Rádio e Televisão de. "D. Teodoro de Faria "trouxe" João Paulo II à Região". D. Teodoro de Faria "trouxe" João Paulo II à Região (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  6. ^"D. Teodoro de Faria recorda "grande amigo da Madeira"". Agência ECCLESIA (in European Portuguese). 2006-04-03. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  7. ^"São João Paulo II - 100 Anos do Nascimento". JM Madeira (in European Portuguese). 2020-05-10. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  8. ^Martins, Rosário (2015-06-08). "Uma esperança que acabou em desencanto". Funchal Notícias (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  9. ^ abRodrigues, Fabrício. "Há 17 anos, "imprudência" do bispo D. Teodoro deixou padres revoltados". www.dnoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  10. ^ ab"Dom Teodoro pronuncia-se sobre a sentença do padre Frederico" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  11. ^ abFerreira, Roberto. "O silêncio ensurdecedor da Igreja do Funchal". www.dnoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2020-02-16. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  12. ^Laranjo, Tânia. "A vida de luxo do Padre Frederico". Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  13. ^Carreira, Tânia Laranjo, Egídio. "Não entendo silêncio da Igreja do Funchal". Retrieved 2018-09-02.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^Ferreira, Roberto. "D. Teodoro mantém convicção sobre inocência do padre Frederico". Diário de Noticías Madeira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  15. ^"D. Teodoro Faria fala sobre o beato Carlos da Áustria". www.dnoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  16. ^ ab"D. Teodoro Faria diz que existem paróquias "só por misericórdia"". JM Madeira (in European Portuguese). 2018-07-18. Archived from the original on 2020-02-16. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  17. ^"Teodoro Faria na ordenação de Tolentino". www.dnoticias.pt (in European Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2018-09-03. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
  18. ^"Bishop Teodoro de Faria †". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
  19. ^"ENTIDADES NACIONAIS AGRACIADAS COM ORDENS PORTUGUESAS - Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas". www.ordens.presidencia.pt. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  20. ^Itcode. "D. Teodoro de Faria dá nome a nova avenida". www.agencia.ecclesia.pt. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
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