Suburbicarian diocese

The suburbicarian dioceses are some of the oldest dioceses of the Latin Church in the vicinity of Rome , the rulers of which assisted the Pope in leading the Church as a whole.

History and function

From these bishops the class of cardinal bishops developed in the course of church history . The suburbicarian dioceses were all suffragan dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Rome . The bishops of the suburbicarian dioceses were subordinate to the bishop of Rome (Pope) in his capacity as metropolitan of this ecclesiastical province. The number and names of these dioceses were subject to slight historical fluctuations. For example, the bishopric Ostia-Velletri was divided by the Motu proprio Edita a Nobis of Pope Pius X on May 5, 1914.

The highest rank among them has always been held by the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia ( ex officio also Cardinal Dean ), who in the rare case that the elected Pope has not yet received episcopal ordination , has the privilege of conferring episcopal ordination on him as chief consecrator.

With the Motu proprio Suburbicariis sedibus of April 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII separated. institutionalized the leadership of the suburbicarian dioceses by the cardinal bishops and stipulated that the suburbicarian dioceses should be headed by their own diocesan bishops with full jurisdiction . Although it remained formally in existence, the diocese of Ostia has never been occupied by a diocesan bishop since then, but the cardinal vicar was appointed apostolic administrator in personal union and the rest of the management of the diocese was taken over by the vicariatus Urbis .

The cardinal bishops still take full possession of their respective diocese, but are no longer involved in the administration of the diocese.

list

There are currently seven suburbicarian dioceses:

Surname	founding	Cardinal Bishop	nationality	since	cathedral
Ostia	3rd century	Giovanni Battista Re	Italy	January 18, 2020	Sant'Aurea
Albano	4th century	Angelo Sodano	Italy	January 10, 1994	San Pancrazio Martire
Frascati	3rd century	Tarcisio Bertone SDS	Italy	April 30, 2008	San Pietro Apostolo in Frascati
Palestrina	4th century	José Saraiva Martins CMF	Portugal	February 24, 2009	Sant'Agapito Martire in Palestrina
Porto-Santa Rufina	3rd century	Beniamino Stella	Italy	1st May 2020	Sacri Cuori di Gesù e Maria
Sabina-Poggio Mirteto	6th century	Giovanni Battista Re	Italy	October 1, 2002	Santa Maria Assunta
Velletri-Segni	5th century	Francis Arinze	Nigeria	April 25, 2005	San Clemente in Velletri

The six non-Oriental cardinal bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have patronage over these dioceses under canon law and are often referred to as their titular bishops .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pius X: Motu Prop. Edita a Nobis , AAS 6 (1914), n. 7, p. 219s.
2. ↑ Ioannes XXIII: Motu Prop. Suburbicariis sedibus , AAS 54 (1962), n. 5, p. 253ss.
3. ↑ See Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 2009 , Città del Vaticano 2009, p. 539.