An ecclesiastical region (Latin: regio ecclesiastica) is a formally organised geographical group of dioceses, ecclesiastical provinces or parishes, without a proper Ordinary as such, in Catholic or Protestant Churches.
Catholic Church
[edit]Apart from historical other uses, there are presently ecclesiastical regions, grouping parts of the extensive episcopate in five Catholic countries.
The equivalent 'apostolic regions' in France, created in 1961, were suppressed in 2004.
Italy
[edit]The Catholic Church in Italy is divided into 16 ecclesiastical regions. The regions mostly correspond to the 20 civil administrative regions of Italy.
- Abruzzo-Molise (joining those two administrative regions)
- Basilicata
- Calabria
- Campania
- Emilia-Romagna
- Lazio = Latium
- Liguria
- Lombardy (Lombardia)
- Marche(s)
- Piemonte (Piedmont), including Valle d'Aosta
- Puglia (Apulia)
- Sardinia (Sardegna)
- Sicily (Sicilia)
- Tuscany (Toscana)
- Triveneto (i.e. Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige)
- Umbria.
Brazil
[edit]The regions -covering the federal state(s) in parentheses- comprise the following ecclesiastical province(s) :
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Regioes_episcopais_do_Brasil.svg/310px-Regioes_episcopais_do_Brasil.svg.png)
- Regional Norte (North) 1 (Amazonas e Roraima) : Manaus (1952)
- Regional Norte 2 (Pará e Amapá) : Belém do Pará (1906)
- Regional Nordeste (NE) 1 (Ceará) : Fortaleza (1915)
- Regional Nordeste 2 (Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte e Alagoas) : Maceió (1920), Natal (1952), Olinda e Recife (1910), Paraíba (1914)
- Regional Nordeste 3 (Bahia e Sergipe) : Aracaju (1960), Feira de Santana (2002), San Salvador di Bahia (1676), Vitória da Conquista (2002)
- Regional Nordeste 4 (Piauí) : Teresina (1952)
- Regional Nordeste 5 (Maranhão) Provincia ecclesiastica di São Luís do Maranhão (1922)
- Regional Leste (East) 1 (Rio de Janeiro) ; Niterói (1960), Rio de Janeiro (1892)
- Regional Leste 2 (Minas Gerais e Espírito Santo) : Belo Horizonte (1924), Diamantina (1917), Juiz de Fora (1962), Mariana (1906), Montes Claros (2001), Pouso Alegre (1962), Uberaba (1962), Vitória (1958)
- Regional Sul (South) 1 (São Paulo) : Aparecida (1958), Botucatu (1958), Campinas (1958), Ribeirão Preto (1958), San Paolo (1908), Sorocaba (1992)
- Regional Sul 2 (Paraná) : Cascavel (1979), Curitiba (1926), Curitiba degli Ucraini (2014), Londrina (1970), Maringá (1979)
- Regional Sul 3 (Rio Grande do Sul) : Passo Fundo (2011), Pelotas (2011), Porto Alegre (1910), Santa Maria (2011)
- Regional Sul 4 (Santa Catarina) : Florianópolis (1927)
- Regional Centro-Oeste (Center-West) (Goiás, Distrito Federal e Tocantins) : Brasília (1960), Goiânia (1956), Palmas (1996) and the army bishopric Ordinariato militare in Brasile (1950)
- Regional Oeste (West) 1 (Mato Grosso do Sul) : Campo Grande (1979)
- Regional Oeste 2 (Mato Grosso) : Cuiabá (1910)
- Regional Noroeste (NW) (Rondônia, Acre e Amazonas) : Porto Velho (1982)
Canada
[edit]Four regions, each comprising several Latin provinces - Ontario and West also the Eastern Catholic province/eparchies, West also a non-metropolitan Latin archdiocese :
- Ontario (Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario) : Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Ukrainian Eparchy of Toronto, Chaldean Eparchy of Mar Addai off Toronto, Ruthenian Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Metodius of Toronto
- West (Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops) : Edmonton, Grouard-McLennan, Keewatin-Le Pas, Regina, Vancouver, (Latin archdiocese of) Winnipeg, Ukrainian province of Winnipeg
- Atlantic (Atlantic Episcopal Assembly) : Halifax-Yarmouth, Moncton, Saint John's
- Québec ([francophone] Assemblée des évêques catholiques du Québec) : Gatineau, Quebec, Rimouski, Montréal, Sherbrooke, Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Montréal, Melkite Eparchy of the Salvator of Montréal
Mexico
[edit]Each region covers one or more ecclesiastical provinces :
- Sur (South) : Acapulco
- Pacífico-Sur : Antequera, Tuxtla Gutiérrez
- Norte (North) : Chihuahua
- Metropolitana (federal capital) : Archdiocese Ciudad Mexico (cfr. below)
- Metro-Circundante : Tlalnepantla, Ciudad Mexico (only suffragans in province, so excepting Ciudad Mexico itself, which constitutes its own region above)
- Vizcaya-Pacifico : Durango
- Occidente (West) : Guadalajara
- Noroeste (NW) : Hermosillo, Tijuana
- Noreste (NE) : Monterrey
- Golfo : Jalapa
- Bajío : León, San Luis Potosí
- Don Vasco : Morelia
- Oriente (East) : Puebla de los Ángeles
- Centro (Central) : Tulancingo
- Sureste (SE) : Yucatán
United States
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/USCCB_Regions_map.png/440px-USCCB_Regions_map.png)
The dioceses of the United States are grouped into fifteen regions: fourteen of the regions (numbered I through XIV) are geographically based, for the Latin Catholic dioceses, the Eastern Catholic eparchies (dioceses) constitute the overlapping 'Region' XV.
Bishops' Region I
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Boston, comprising the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
- Ecclesiastical province of Hartford, comprising the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as Fishers Island in the state of New York.
Bishops' Region II
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of New York, comprising the state of New York except for Fishers Island.
Bishops' Region III
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Newark, comprising the state of New Jersey.
- Ecclesiastical province of Philadelphia, comprising the state of Pennsylvania.
Bishops' Region IV
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Baltimore, comprising most of the state of Maryland as well as the states of Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia.
- Ecclesiastical province of Washington, comprising the District of Columbia, 5 counties in southern Maryland, and the United States Virgin Islands.
- Metropolitan Archdiocese of Washington
- Diocese of Saint Thomas, with see in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands (the bishops of the diocese are members of the USCCB and have observer status in the Antilles Episcopal Conference)
Bishops' Region V
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Mobile, comprising the states of Alabama and Mississippi.
- Ecclesiastical province of New Orleans, comprising the state of Louisiana.
Bishops' Region VI
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Cincinnati, comprising the state of Ohio.
- Ecclesiastical province of Detroit, comprising the state of Michigan.
Bishops' Region VII
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Chicago, comprising the state of Illinois.
- Ecclesiastical province of Indianapolis, comprising the state of Indiana.
- Ecclesiastical province of Milwaukee, comprising the state of Wisconsin.
Bishops' Region VIII
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, comprising the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Bishops' Region IX
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Dubuque, comprising the state of Iowa.
- Ecclesiastical province of Kansas City, comprising the state of Kansas.
- Ecclesiastical province of Omaha, comprising the state of Nebraska.
- Ecclesiastical province of Saint Louis, comprising the state of Missouri.
Bishops' Region X
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Galveston-Houston, comprising the east and southeast parts of the state of Texas.
- Ecclesiastical province of San Antonio, comprising the west and north of the state of Texas.
- Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, comprising former Anglicans throughout the United States (and Canada).
Bishops' Region XI
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Los Angeles, comprising the southern part of the state of California.
- Ecclesiastical province of San Francisco, comprising the northern part of the state of California and the state of Hawaii (in Oceania)[citation needed].
Bishops' Region XII
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Anchorage-Juneau, comprising the state of Alaska.
- Ecclesiastical province of Portland in Oregon, comprising the states of Idaho, Montana and Oregon, except for the parts of Yellowstone National Park in the states of Idaho and Montana.
- Ecclesiastical province of Seattle, comprising the state of Washington
Bishops' Region XIII
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Denver, comprising the states of Colorado and Wyoming, as well as the parts of Yellowstone National Park in the states of Idaho and Montana.
- Ecclesiastical province of Santa Fe, comprising the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
Bishops' Region XIV
[edit]- Ecclesiastical province of Miami, comprising the state of Florida.
- Ecclesiastical province of Atlanta, comprising the states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Bishops' "Region" XV - Eastern Catholic Eparchies and Archeparchies
[edit]This is not a geographical region and it does not consist of ecclesiastical provinces. Instead, it consists exclusively of US branches of various, generally Europe or Asia-based, particular Eastern Catholic Churches. See the Eastern Catholic Churches section (below) for their particular hierarchies.
- Antiochian rites
- Maronite Church
- Eparchy of Brooklyn (NYC, New York)
- Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon (St. Louis, Missouri)
- Armenian rite
- Armenian Catholic Church
- Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) rites
- Melkite Greek Catholic Church
Ecclesiastical province of the Ruthenian Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh
- Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the only one whose chief passed to America
Ecclesiastical Province of Philadelphia
- Syro-Oriental Rites
- Chaldean Catholic Church
References
[edit]- ^ "Bishops and Dioceses". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
Sources and external links
[edit]- Teilkirchenverbände (Cann. 431 – 459) in the 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici
- Italian ecclesiastical regions (in Italian) on official Website in Italian of Catholic Church in Italy
- Four ecclesiastical regions in Provostry Kaliningrad