Diocese of Rome Dioecesis Urbis seu Romana Diocesi di Roma | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
| Country | Italy andVatican City |
| Territory | |
| Ecclesiastical province | |
| Coordinates | 41°53′9.26″N12°30′22.16″E / 41.8859056°N 12.5061556°E /41.8859056; 12.5061556 |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 881 km2 (340 sq mi) |
Population
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| Parishes | 334 |
| Churches | 711 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 1st century |
| Cathedral | Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran |
| Patron saint | |
| Secular priests | 1,589 |
| Current leadership | |
| Governance | Holy See |
| Bishop | Pope Leo XIV |
| Auxiliary Bishops |
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| Bishops emeritus | |
| Website | |
| diocesidiroma.it | |
| Source:Annuario Pontificio (2012) | |
TheDiocese of Rome (Latin:Dioecesis Urbis seu Romana;[2]Italian:Diocesi di Roma) is aLatindiocese of theCatholic Church under the directjurisdiction of thepope, who is Bishop of Rome and hence the supremepontiff and head of the worldwide Catholic Church.[3] As theHoly See, the papacy is a sovereign entity with diplomatic relations,[4] and it has civil jurisdiction overVatican City (located geographically within the city ofRome). The Diocese of Rome consists of two geographical jurisdictions: theVicariate of Rome, and the smallVicariate of Vatican City. It is themetropolitan diocese of the Province of Rome, anecclesiastical province in theEcclesiastical Region of Lazio in Italy. According toCatholic tradition, the first bishop of Rome wasSaint Peter during the first century.[5][6][7]
Historically, many Rome-born men – as well as others born elsewhere on theItalian peninsula – served as bishops of Rome. Since 1900, however, there has been only one Rome-born bishop of Rome,Pius XII (1939–1958). In addition, throughout history, non-Italians have served as bishops of Rome, beginning with the first of them according to Catholic tradition – Saint Peter.
The Diocese of Rome is theprimatialsee of Italy, and its cathedral is theArchbasilica of Saint John Lateran. The primate of Italy is the pope, holding primacy of honor over the Italian sees and alsoprimacy of jurisdiction over all other episcopal sees by Catholic tradition.
The pope is the Bishop of Rome, and some of his titles derive from this specific role. The official list of papal titles, in the order they are dictated by theAnnuario Pontificio in 2024, is:
The title "pope" is not in the official list, but is commonly used in the titles of documents, and appears, in abbreviated form, in papal signatures.
The best evidence available for the origins of the Church in Rome isSaint Paul'sEpistle to the Romans. This indicates that the church was established probably by the early 40s AD.Saint Peter became associated with this church sometime between the year 58 and the early 60s.[10]
According to one historian:
The final years of the first century and the early years of the second constitute the "postapostolic" period, as reflected in the extrabiblical writings ofClement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch. By now the church at Rome was exercising a pastoral care that extended beyond its own community, having replaced Jerusalem as the practical center of the growing universal Church. Appeals were made to Peter and Paul, with whom the Roman church was most closely identified.[10]
On 6 January 2023, by theapostolic constitutionIn Ecclesiarum Communione,Pope Francis reorganised the diocese to make it morecollegial and to reinforce the role of the pope in it.[3]
The diocese covers a territory of 881 square kilometres (340 sq mi)[11] of which 0.44 square kilometres (0.17 sq mi) is in the Vatican City State and the rest is in Italy. The diocese has 1,219 diocesan priests of its own, while 2,331 priests of other dioceses, 5,072religious priests and 140Opus Dei priests reside in its territory, as do 2,266 women religious.[12] In 2004, they ministered to an estimated 2,454,000faithful, who made up 88% of the population of the territory.
The city of Rome has grown beyond the boundaries of the diocese. Notable parts of the city belong to the dioceses ofOstia andPorto-Santa Rufina. Ostia is administered together with the Vicariate of the city and thus included in the statistics given below, while Porto is instead administered by its owndiocesan bishop. The diocese covers an area of 849 km2 and includes most of the city and the municipality of Rome in Italy, and the entire territory of Vatican City. The diocese is divided into two vicariates, each with its respectivevicar general.
Two vicars general exercise the episcopal ministry and pastoral government for their respective territories within the diocese of Rome. Unless the bishop of a diocese reserves some acts to himself, vicars general have by law within a diocese the power to undertake all administrative acts that pertain to the bishop except those that in law require a special mandate of the bishop.[13]
This vicariate has responsibility for the territory ofVatican City. It consists of twoparishes:Saint Peter's Basilica andSaint Anne in the Vatican.[14][15] Its pastoral mission with respect to residents of its territory is minimal. It is primarily concerned with providing appropriate services to tourists, pilgrims, and others in Rome who avail themselves of services provided in Vatican City. Since 1991, the vicar general for Vatican City has been the cardinal who is the archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, currently CardinalMauro Gambetti.
| No. | Image | Name (Birth–Death) | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agostino Zampini [it],O.S.A. (1858–1937) | 30 May 1929 – 7 June 1937 (7 years) | |
| 2 | Alfonso Camillo De Romanis [it], O.S.A. (1885–1950) | 20 August 1937 – 18 January 1950 (12 years) | |
| 3 | .jpg) | Petrus Canisius Van Lierde, O.S.A. (1907–1995) | 13 January 1951 – 14 January 1991 (40 years) |
| – | Aurelio Sabattani (1912–2003) | 14 January 1991 – 1 July 1991 (acting) | |
| 4 | .jpg) | Virgilio Noè (1922–2011) | 1 July 1991[16] – 24 April 2002[17] (10 years) |
| 5 | Francesco Marchisano (1929–2014) | 24 April 2002[17] – 5 February 2005[18] (2 years) | |
| 6 |  | Angelo Comastri (born 1943) | 5 February 2005[18] – 20 February 2021[19] (15 years) |
| 7 |  | Mauro Gambetti,O.F.M. Conv. (born 1965) | 20 February 2021[19] – present (4 years) |
The vicariate general (Vicariatus urbis) for the diocesan territory outside of Vatican City, territory that is under Italian sovereignty, is based at theArchbasilica of Saint John Lateran, which is thecathedral of the diocese. Thevicar general for the Vicariate of Rome has for centuries been called thecardinal vicar (Italian:Cardinale Vicario). The vicariate has 336 active and 5 suppressed parishes in its territory.[20] Since 1970 the vicar of the city of Rome has also been assigned the office of archpriest of the Lateran Archbasilica, where the diocesan curia has its headquarters. From a strictly pastoral point of view, the diocese is divided into five sectors: north, south, east, west, and center. Each sector is assigned an auxiliary bishop who collaborates with the vicar general and the vicegerent in the pastoral administration of the diocese. The five bishops of the sectors can be joined by other auxiliary bishops for specific pastoral areas such as health care ministry.
In January 2023, Pope Francis reorganized the Diocese of Rome, greatly restricting the role of vicar general. He defined the role of each auxiliary bishop and took direct charge of many diocesan decisions.[21][22] He defined the vicar general's role as a coordinator of the work of diocesan bodies, defined him as an auxiliary, and restricted his sphere of responsibility with the rule that the vicar general "will not undertake important initiatives or ones exceeding ordinary administration without first reporting to me".[23]
Six of the dioceses of the Roman Province are described as suburbicarian.[24] Eachsuburbicarian diocese has acardinal bishop at its titular head.
There remains the titularSuburbicarian See of Ostia, held, in addition to his previous suburbicarian see, by the cardinal bishop electedDean of the College of Cardinals. The Diocese of Ostia was merged with the Diocese of Rome in 1962, and is now administered by a vicar general, in tight cooperation with the vicar general for Rome. It was also diminished to contain only the cathedral parish of Ostia (Sant'Aurea in Ostia Antica), which, however, in 2012 was divided into two parishes, which together form the present diocese of Ostia.
Other Italian dioceses having Rome as theirmetropolitan see:
Numerousordinaries andpersonal prelatures outside the province of Rome, worldwide, are "Exempt", i.e. "directly subject to the Holy See", not part of anyecclesiastical province, including:
:2 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).
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| Diocese of Rome withuniversal full communion (Papal primacy) |
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Traditional ecclesiastical jurisdictions ofprimates inChristianity, sorted according to earliestapostolic legacy and branched where multiple denominational claimants: bold blue =Catholic Church,light blue =Eastern Orthodox Church (* unrecognized),bold/light green =Oriental Orthodoxy,italic blue =Nestorianism,bold italic blue =pre-schism | |||||||||||||||||||||
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