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Diocese
*** Shopping-Tip: Diocese
:''This article is on the ecclestiastical diocese- for the Roman administrative unit, see
Roman province''
Image:Alencastre Window.jpg Pope_Pius XI.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|right|280px|[[Pope Pius XI blesses
Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth
Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace stained glass window window. In
Roman Catholicism Catholicism, the
pope is the bishop of the
diocese of Rome. He creates the other
List of Roman Catholic dioceses dioceses throughout the world and chooses their bishops..html" title="Meaning of right|280px|[[Pope Pius XI">thumb|right|280px|[[Pope Pius XI blesses
Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth
Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace stained glass window window. In
Roman Catholicism Catholicism, the
pope is the bishop of the
diocese of Rome. He creates the other
List of Roman Catholic dioceses dioceses throughout the world and chooses their bishops.">right|280px|[[Pope Pius XI">thumb|right|280px|[[Pope Pius XI blesses
Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth
Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace stained glass window window. In
Roman Catholicism Catholicism, the
pope is the bishop of the
diocese of Rome. He creates the other
List of Roman Catholic dioceses dioceses throughout the world and chooses their bishops.
In some Christian churches, the '''diocese''' is an administrative territorial unit administrated by a
bishop, hence also referred to as a '''''bishopric''''' or ''
episcopal see'', though more often the term ''episcopal see'' means the office held by the bishop. In the
Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox Churches, an important diocese is called an '''archdiocese''' (usually due to size, historical significance, or both), which is governed by an
Archbishop, who may in the Catholic hierarchy either be exempt or have Metropolitan authority over the other ('suffragan') dioceses within a wider jurisdcition called
ecclesiastical province.
As of 2003, there are approximately 569 Roman Catholic archdioceses and 2014 dioceses.
Some
Protestant churches, such as the
Church of England, inherited this diocesan structure after the
Protestant Reformation formally divided new Christian sects from the Roman Catholic Church.
In the later organization of the
Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided
Roman province provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. (
Latin ''dioecesis'', from the
Greek language Greek term διοίκησις meaning "administration").
The Catholic Church adopted the Roman diocesan structure of authority during the
5th century 5th and
6th century 6th centuries, as each bishop fully assumed the role of the former Roman ''
praefectus''. This transfer of authority from secular officials to ecclesiastical leaders was facilitated by the Christian practice of establishing areas of ecclesiastical administration that coincided with those of the Roman civil administration. In modern times, many an ancient diocese, though later divided among several dioceses, has preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division. See also:
Bishops#Bishops_and_civil_government Bishops and civil government.
In the Roman Empire
The earliest use of 'diocese' as an administrative unit was in the Greek-speaking East. Three districts—
Cibyra,
Apamea and
Synnada— were added to the province of
Cilicia in the time of
Cicero, who mentions the fact in his familiar letters (''EB'' 1911). The word 'diocese', which at that time was equivalent to a tax-collecting district, came to be applied to the territory itself.
The reorganization of the
Roman Empire Empire known as Tetrarchy began under Emperor
Diocletian, who divided the vast Empire into four quarters, originally each under a co-emperor ('Tetrarch') but as tjese soon were abolished under their former chiefs of staff, styled pretorian prefects, who had authority over the next, also new administrative level: twelve dioceses. The largest,
Oriens, included sixteen provinces, and the smallest, Britain, was comprised of only four provinces. A list of Roman dioceses as they existed in
395 Common Era CE can be found at the entry for
Roman provinces.
Each diocese of the Empire was governed by a ''
vicarius'' . Between the
4th century 4th and
6th century 6th centuries, as the older administrative structure began to crumble, the role of the bishops in the western lands of the Empire enabled those lands and their peoples to maintain a semblance of civilisation as the authority of Rome vanished. The
Roman Senate senatorial aristocracy, especially in the provinces, continued in many places to serve as sources of local authority to complement the authority assumed by the Church. At that time, ecclesiastical political power was often vested in the spiritual offices of the
bishops in each region. It is, therefore, unsurprising that, as the
Catholic, and later the
Eastern Orthodox, churches began to define their respective administrative structures, they relied on the older Roman terminology and methods to describe administrative units and hierarchy, which caused the division between ecclesiastical and secular authority to often disappear. In the
Byzantine Empire Eastern Empire, this became fundamental doctrine: see
Caesaropapism.
Christian hierarchy
Modern Christian usage of 'diocese' tends to refer to the sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction. This became commonplace during the self-conscious "classicizing" structural evolution of the
Carolingian empire in the 9th century, but this usage had itself been evolving from the much earlier ''parochia'' ("
parish"), dating from the increasingly formalised Christian authority structure in the 4th century (see ''EB'' 1911).
In English-speaking countries,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the term
ward (Mormonism) ward, rather than parish, to refer to the jurisdiction of the
bishop (Mormonism) bishop and his counselors. However, the ward is not equal in size to a Catholic diocese; rather, a
stake (Mormonism) stake is.
See also
*
Eparchy, a term in
Eastern-Rite Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy Oriental Orthodoxy, and the
Assyrian Church of the East
*
List of Bishops
*
Particular church
*
Latin_(Ecclesiastical) Ecclesiastical Latin
*
Catholic Church in Great Britain
*
List of Roman Catholic archdioceses
*
List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of France
*
List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Ireland
*
List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Japan
*
List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of the United States
*
List of Church of England dioceses
*
List of Church of Ireland dioceses
*
Dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Sources and External links
-
''Encyclopedia Britannica'' 1911
-
Virtually complete list of current and historical Catholic dioceses worldwide
-
Another such list, in English and Norwegian
*
notitia dignitatum
-
List of current Anglican/Episcopalian dioceses
Category:Christian group structuring
ca:Diòcesi
cs:Diecéze
da:Stift
de:Diözese
es:Diócesis
fr:Diocèse
hr:Dijeceza
it:Diocesi
he:דיוקסיה
la:Episcopatus
nl:Bisdom
ja:教区
no:Bispedømme
nn:Bispedøme
pl:Diecezja
pt:Diocese
ro:Dieceză
sl:Å kofija
sv:Stift (kyrkligt förvaltningsområde)
uk:ЄпархіÑ?
zh:教�
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|- style="vertical-align: center;"
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|}
*** Shopping-Tip: Diocese
