List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of France

The following is the list of the Roman Catholic dioceses of France since 2002. See also the List of Ancien Régime dioceses of France and the List of French dioceses in the 19th and 20th century for information prior to 2002.

Dioceses of metropolitan France. Provinces are demarcated by bold lines and their sees (Metropolitan archdioceses) written in bold letters.

Pope John Paul II completely redrew the map of French ecclesiastical provinces in December 2002, in order to coincide more closely with the map of French administrative regions, but losing in several instances remaining boundaries surviving from late Roman times. This meant the creation of a few new Metropolitan archbishoprics and ecclesiastical provinces. This also entailed, for several archbishoprics, the loss of their metropolitan status (symbolised by the wearing of the pallium): their bishops nevertheless retained the title of archbishop.

As a result of history, many former episcopal sees were united, mainly as a consequence of the French Revolution; hence many dioceses bear the names of several cities, in which case, only the first one is the cathedral see where the bishop still actually resides.

In France, most dioceses coincide with a department (administrative province), but there are a few exceptions, where some arrondissements are attached to a diocese outside the department, or form a separate diocese within the department (this happens mainly in departments with numerous populations, such as Nord or Bouches-du-Rhône). Along with the list of the new ecclesiastical provinces and their suffragan dioceses, this list also gives the equivalent of the diocesan jurisdiction in departmental terms.

List of European French Dioceses

Episcopal Conference of ('Metropolitan', European) France

Ecclesiastical Province of Besançon

(Franche-Comté and part of Lorraine)

Ecclesiastical Province of Bordeaux

(Aquitaine)

Ecclesiastical Province of Clermont

(Auvergne)

Ecclesiastical Province of Dijon

(Burgundy)

Ecclesiastical Province of Lille

(Nord-Pas-de-Calais)

Ecclesiastical Province of Lyon

(Rhône-Alpes)

Ecclesiastical Province of Marseille

(Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur and Corsica)

Ecclesiastical Province of Montpellier

(Languedoc-Roussillon)

Ecclesiastical Province of Paris

(Ile-de-France)

Ecclesiastical Province of Poitiers

(Poitou-Charentes and Limousin)

Ecclesiastical Province of Reims

(Champagne-Ardenne and Picardy)

Ecclesiastical Province of Rennes

(Brittany and Pays-de-la-Loire)

Ecclesiastical Province of Rouen

(Upper and Lower Normandy)

Eccleasiastical Province of Toulouse

(Midi-Pyrénées)

Eccleasiastical Province of Tours

(Centre)

Exempt, i.e. directly subject to the Holy See

Overseas French dioceses

(in many cases, in a conference/province(s) with non-French, mainly Anglophone, dioceses)

Episcopal Conference of the Antilles

Ecclesiastical Province of Martinique

(Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana; exclusively Francophone)

Episcopal Conference of the Pacific

Ecclesiastical Province of Papeete

Ecclesiastical Province of Noumea

Exempt, under the direct authority of the Holy See

Gallery of Archdioceses

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Pope Benedict XVI elevated the Diocese of Lille to a Metropolitan Archdiocese. Cambrai (the former Metropolitan) became its suffragan, while retaining the title "Archdiocese" (see "Daily Bulletin - Elevazione di Lille (Francia) a Chiesa Metropolitana e Nomina del Primo Arcivescovo Metropolita" (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2008-03-30.).

External links

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