Diocese of Rome

Diocese of Rome
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Seal of the Diocese of Rome

The Diocese of Rome (Latin: Diœcesis Urbis or Diœcesis Romana, Italian: Diocesi di Roma), otherwise known as the Holy See, the Apostolic See, the Holy Roman Church, the Church of Rome, or the See of Peter, is a diocese of the Catholic Church, in Italy.^[1] By some it is called the Patriarchate of Rome. The diocese is the seat of the bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope, who is the Supreme Pontiff and chief of the Catholic Church. Established in the First Century, the current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who acceded after the death of Pope John Paul II, in March of 2005.

content

1 The bishop
2 The diocese
3 List of suffragans
4 Ordinaries
5 Notes
6 External Links

The bishop

Further information: Pope

The bishop of the Diocese of Rome has, first of all, the simple title of Bishop of Rome because all other his titles descends from this condition that qualificates him as the successor of Saint Peter in Rome. From this he has a plethora of titles:

Foremost he is the Pope, that cames from the Greek pappas, in the means of "father". His see is the Chair of Peter which has Primacy over all of the Catholic Church and qualificates its bishop as Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ.
He has also been called Patriarch of the West, although this title has been dropped recently.^[2] He has authority over the entire Latin Church, over the other latin Patriarchs, such as the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Venice and Lisbon. He has been seen as one of the ancient patriarchs of the christian Pentarchy.
Then he is Primate of Italy, that means the most important bishop of the Italian church.
Finally, he is also the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rome itself.

The diocese

The Papal Cathedra, the throne of the Pope in the Archibasilica Lateranensis.

Further information: Holy See

The territory of the diocese extends all over the Vatican City State and the city of Rome, capital of the Italian Republic. The two parts of the diocese are then administrated by two vicars of the Pope and named as:

Vicariate of Rome, or Vicariatus urbis, that includes the cathedral of Archibasilica Lateranensis and all the territory under Italian sovereignty. The current vicar is Bishop Augustine Cardinal Vallini.
Vicariate of the Vatican City, that includes the Basilica Vaticana and all the territory of the Vatican City State. The current vicar is Archbishop Angelo Cardinal Comastri.

The diocese covers a territory of 881 square kilometers^[3] containing 341 parishes, 337 of which are active. There are 336 for the city of Rome^[4] and one, St. Anne's Parish, for Vatican City.^[5] The diocese has 238 cardinal clerics, and an additional 1187 "Roman" clerics.^[6] In 2004, they pastored an estimated 2,454,000 faithful, who made up 88% of the population of the territory.

List of suffragans

Seven of the dioceses of the Roman Province have the title of suburbicarians, from the Latin sub-urbis, with the significate of "subject to the city [of Rome]". Each suburbicarian diocese has a Cardinal Bishop at its head.

Otherwise there are other diocese connexed with the Metropolitan of Rome. They are churches directly subjected to the Holy See:

Ordinaries

For a list of Popes, please see: List of Popes.

Notes

^ Catholic Encyclopedia article: Rome
^ CNS News article
^ Entry at catholic-hierarchy.org
^ List of Parishes in the Vicariate
^ Homily of John Paul II to St. Anne's Parish
^ Diocesan website, listing of personel

External Links

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