Michael Brooks
As of December 2024, the Catholic Church is comprised of 2,898 regular dioceses, including 564 metropolitan archdioceses, 77 single archdioceses, and 2,261 dioceses. These are ruled by a bishop and are often grouped by the Holy See into ecclesiastical provinces for greater cooperation and common action among regional dioceses. One diocese can be designated an archdiocese or metropolitan archdiocese, establishing centrality within an ecclesiastical province and denoting a higher rank. In total, the Catholic Church has 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,249 dioceses.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Total number of ecclesiastical jurisdictions | 3,172 |
| Number of archdioceses | 652+ |
| Number of dioceses | 2,249 |
| Number of regular dioceses | 2,898 |
| Number of titular sees | 2,100 |
| Definition | A portion of the people of God which is entrusted to a bishop for him to shepherd |
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What You'll Learn
Catholic Church structure
As of 31 December 2020, the Catholic Church consisted of 2903 dioceses or equivalent jurisdictions, each overseen by a bishop. As of June 21, 2024, the Catholic Church in its entirety comprised 3172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2249 dioceses. In addition, there are 2100 titular sees (bishoprics, archbishoprics, and metropolitanates).
The Catholic Church's hierarchy consists of bishops, priests, and deacons. The bishops, who possess the fullness of priesthood and diaconate, are considered the successors of the Apostles and are "constituted Pastors in the Church, to be the teachers of doctrine, the priests of sacred worship, and the ministers of governance." Authority rests chiefly with bishops, while priests and deacons serve as their assistants. The Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and Peter's successor is the "perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful." The Pope is a bishop and traditionally uses the title "Venerable Brother" when writing formally to another bishop. The typical role of a bishop is to provide pastoral governance for a diocese. Bishops who fulfill this function are known as diocesan ordinaries.
Eastern Catholic Churches are in pastoral charge of Eastern Churches of only the Byzantine Rite or the Armenian Rite in one or more states of various Catholic churches without any proper diocese. Ordinarily, they are vested in a Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop, often in the capital. The Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria, for example, is vested in the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vienna.
The cardinalate is not an integral part of the Catholic Church's theological structure but is largely an honorific distinction. Each cardinal is assigned a church in Rome as his "titular church" or is linked with one of the suburbicarian dioceses.
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Eastern Ordinariates
As of June 21, 2024, the Catholic Church comprised 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including archdioceses, dioceses, apostolic vicariates, apostolic exarchates, apostolic administrations, apostolic prefectures, military ordinariates, personal ordinariates, personal prelatures, territorial prelatures, territorial abbacies, and missions sui juris.
There are eight ordinariates for the faithful of the Eastern Rite, listed in the Annuario Pontificio along with the seventeen apostolic exarchates. Of these eight, four (in Argentina, Brazil, France, and Poland) are for all Eastern Catholics who lack an ordinary of their own rite in their country and are therefore entrusted to the care of a Latin Archbishop in the country. The one in Austria is for Catholics belonging to any of the fourteen particular Churches that use the Byzantine Rite. The other three (Eastern Europe, Greece, and Romania) are for members of the Armenian Catholic Church.
Ordinariates for former Anglicans, also known as personal ordinariates or Anglican ordinariates, are canonical structures within the Catholic Church. They were created to enable groups of Anglicans and Methodists to join the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their liturgical and spiritual patrimony. While they preserve a corporate identity of Anglicans, they are canonically within the Latin Church.
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Italo-Albanese Diocese of Lungro
As of 21 June 2024, the Catholic Church is comprised of 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,249 dioceses. One of these dioceses is the Italo-Albanese Diocese of Lungro, an eparchy of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church of Byzantine Rite in Calabria, Italy.
The Eparchy of Lungro was created in 1919 as a diocese directly subject to the Holy See. It was established for members of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, the Catholics of the Byzantine Rite who had emigrated, largely from Epirus and Albania, to Sicily and Calabria. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church is characterised by a specific ethnic group: the Albanians of Italy, Arbëreshë, or Italo-Albanesi. The Albanian ethno-linguistic group of Italy has preserved its identity, with the clergy acting as the strongest guardian and fulcrum of ethnic identification.
The Italo-Albanese Diocese of Lungro gained territory from the Archdiocese of Cosenza, the Archdiocese of Rossano, the Diocese of Bisignano, the Diocese of Cassano all'Jonio, and the Diocese of San Marco. The cathedral see is located in Lungro, near Cosenza in Calabria. The Italo-Albanese Diocese of Lungro is also known as the Eparchia di Lungro in Italian and the Eparhia e Ungrës in Albanian.
The Italo-Greeks were under the jurisdiction of the Latin diocesan bishops until 1919. In 1909, an Ordinary for the Greeks of Calabria resided in Naples. The foundation of the Eparchy of Lungro in 1919 allowed Byzantine-Rite Albanians in mainland Italy to be served by an Eastern Catholic bishopric.
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Ukrainian Catholic Church
As of June 21, 2024, the Catholic Church as a whole is made up of 3,172 ecclesiastical jurisdictions, including over 652 archdioceses and 2,249 dioceses.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church based in Ukraine. It is the second-largest particular church in the Catholic Church, after the Latin Church. The UGCC is in full communion with the Holy See and regards itself as a successor to the metropolis that was established in 988 following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great.
The Byzantine-Greek influence on the church continued, particularly with the official adoption of Byzantine rites by Prince Vladimir I of Kiev in 988 when the metropolis of Kiev within the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was established. Later, at the time of the Great Schism (c. 1054), the church took sides and remained Orthodox. The people in this church were referred to by the Catholic hierarchy primarily as "Greek Catholics" because they used the "'Greek' or Byzantine Rite", as well as more specifically "Ruthenian Catholics". The leader of the Church was called Metropolita Kioviensis or "Metropolitan of Kiev" and sometimes also "'of Galicia and all Rus'" until 1805.
In the 17th century, the church was officially referred to as the Ruthenian Uniate Church in Latin. In 1774, by decision of Empress Maria Theresa, the church was distinguished as the Greek Catholic Church to differentiate it from the Latin Catholic and Armenian Catholic Churches. Since 1912, the church has been referred to as the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the papal statistical yearbook Annuario Pontificio. In 1963, the ordinary (or hierarch) of the church was granted the title of "Major Archbishop". The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
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Ecclesiastical provinces
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consists of several dioceses (or eparchies), one of which is the archdiocese (or archeparchy), headed by a metropolitan bishop or archbishop who has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all other bishops of the province. In the Catholic Church, a province consists of a metropolitan archdiocese and one or more suffragan dioceses headed by diocesan bishops or territorial prelatures and missions sui iuris.
The development of ecclesiastical provinces in the Christian West was slower than in the East due to the migration of nations. It was only after the 5th century that ecclesiastical provinces gradually developed, mostly in accordance with the ancient divisions of the Roman Empire. In the Carolingian period, they were reorganised and have retained their place since.
Many countries contain more than one ecclesiastical province, except those with small populations or few Catholics. Even individual dioceses, let alone ecclesiastical provinces, can comprise more than one state. For example, the Diocese of Rome includes Vatican City and part of Italy. The historical development of ecclesiastical provinces in the Eastern Orthodox Church was influenced by strong tendencies towards internal administrative centralisation.
In Ireland, the four ecclesiastical provinces fixed by the Synod of Kells in 1152 reflected the contemporary boundaries of the secular provinces. However, since the Partition of Ireland in 1920–1922, six dioceses in the province of Armagh straddle the international border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, the dioceses, and subsequently the two provinces, follow both civil and geographical boundaries, such as rivers. In geographically large nations with a significant Catholic population, such as the United States, ecclesiastical provinces typically follow state lines, with less populous states being grouped into provinces.
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Frequently asked questions
As of December 2024, there are 2,898 regular dioceses in the Catholic Church.
A diocese is a geographical area of the Catholic Church that is under the authority of a bishop.
A diocese ruled by an archbishop is commonly referred to as an archdiocese. The term "archdiocese" is not found in Catholic canon law, with the terms "diocese" and "episcopal see" being applicable to the area under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of any bishop.
As of June 2024, there are over 652 archdioceses in the Catholic Church.
