The Diocese of Bruges (in Dutch Bisdom Brugge) is a

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Catholic Church in Belgium The Catholic Church in Belgium, part of the global Catholic Church in Belgium, is under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome and the Episcopal Conference of Bishops. Dioceses There are eight dioceses, including one archdioces ...

. It is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...

of the metropolitan

Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, which covers all of Belgium. A diocese from 1558 to its suppression in 1801, in 1832 it became a pre-diocesan apostolic vicariate as the Apostolic Administration of West Flanders. Its territory coincides with

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

. The episcopal see of the diocese is Sint-Salvator Cathedral, dedicated to Our Savior, in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

, West Flanders, which is also a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

. The

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the diocese is

Saint Donatian In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

, so the cathedral is also known as ''Sint-Salvators- en Donaaskathedraal''.

Statistics

, it pastorally served 965,000 Catholics (82.1% of 1,174,752 total) on 3,145 km² in 362 parishes and 65 missions with 708 priests (499 diocesan, 209 religious), 91 deacons, 1,986 lay religious (290 brothers, 1,696 sisters) and 7 seminarians.

History

An earlier diocese of Bruges was established on 12 May 1558, on territory split off from the

Diocese of Tournai The Diocese of Tournai is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was formed in 1146, upon the dissolution of the Diocese of Noyon & Tournai, which had existed since the 7th Century. It is ...

, as part of the great Habsburg reform of the church in the then

Spanish Low Countries Spanish Netherlands (Spanish language, Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch language, Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French language, French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German language, German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes ...

. Its see, St. Donatian's Cathedral, was destroyed in a fire in 1799 during the aftermath of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. During the reforms under the Napoleonic Concordate, the diocese was suppressed on 15 July 1801 and its territory merged into the

Diocese of Ghent The Diocese of Ghent (Latin: ''Dioecesis Gandavensis'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussel ...

. On 17 December 1832, shortly after the independence of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, the territory was restored as the pre-diocesan

Apostolic Administration An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

. On 27 May 1834, the territory was again promoted to diocese and renamed after its see, Bruges, while the incumbent Apostolic Administrator became Suffragan Bishop. On 31 May 1967 the diocese lost a portion of territory to the much older

, shortly after a reshuffle of provincial borders involving a few municipalities, notably

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropoli ...

being transferred to the

province of Hainaut Hainaut (, also , , ; nl, Henegouwen ; wa, Hinnot; pcd, Hénau), historically also known as Heynowes in English, is a province of Wallonia and Belgium. To its south lies the French department of Nord, while within Belgium it borders (clock ...

(to which the bishopric of Tournai is now limited). In 1985 the diocese of Bruges experienced a papal visit from

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

, who on 17 May gave a homily on the horrors of war at Ypres as part of his pastoral visit to the Low Countries. A 2010 scandal saw Bishop

Roger Vangheluwe Roger Joseph Vangheluwe (born 7 November 1936) is the former Bishop of Bruges. He gained notoriety after admitting to having sexually abused two nephews over the course of a 15-year period while serving first as a priest and then as bishop, thoug ...

, a confessed and hardly remorseful pederast, forced into early retirement.

Ordinaries

;''Suffragan Bishops (first diocese) * 1560–1567: Petrus Curtius (Petrus De Corte) * 1569–1594: Remigius Driutius (Remi Drieux) * 1596–1602: Mathias Lambrecht * 1604–1616: Charles Philippe de Rodoan * 1616–1620:

Anthonius Triest Anthonius Triest (in Dutch sometimes ''Antoon''; in French ''Antoine'') (1576 – 28 May 1657), was the fifth bishop of Bruges and the seventh bishop of Ghent. Early life Anthonius was born in the castle of Ten Walle in Beveren in 1576, son of Ph ...

(also

bishop of Ghent The Diocese of Ghent (Latin: ''Dioecesis Gandavensis'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolis (religious jurisdiction), metropoli ...

) * 1623–1629: Denis Stoffels * 1630–1639: Servaas de Quinckere * 1642–1649: Nicolaas de Haudion * 1651–1660: Carolus van den Bosch (afterwards

) * 1662–1668: Robert de Haynin * 1668–1671: ''Vacant'' (diocesan administrator

Charles Geleyns Charles Geleyns (c. 1610 – 22 August 1677 in Bruges), also named Carolus Geleyns in Latin or Karel Geleyns in Dutch, was a Flemish Roman Catholic priest, Benedictine monk and abbot of the Saint Peter's Abbey of Oudenburg in the Southern Nethe ...

) * 1671–1681: François de Baillencourt * 1682–1689: Humbertus Guilielmus de Precipiano (also

Archbishop of Mechelen In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

) * 1691–1706: Guilielmus (Willem) Bassery * 1706–1716: ''Vacant'' * 1716–1742: Hendrik Jozef van Susteren * 1743–1753: Jan-Baptist de Castillon * 1754–1775: Joannes-Robertus Caimo * 1777–1794: Felix Brenart * ''Suppressed'' ;''Apostolic Administrator of West Flanders'' * Franciscus Renatus Boussen (January 21, 1833 – May 27, 1834 ''see next''),

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Ptolemais (December 17, 1832 – June 23, 1834),

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...

of Ghent (Belgium) (17 December 1832 – 23 June 1834) ;''Suffragan Bishops (present diocese) * 1834–1848: Franciscus Renatus Boussen (''see previous'') * 1848–1864: Joannes-Baptista Malou * 1864–1894:

Johan Joseph Faict Jean-Joseph Faict (22 May 1813 – 4 January 1894) was the 20th Bishop of Bruges. Life Early years Faict was born in the coastal village of Leffinge at the time when the whole of West Flanders was part of the French empire. His father was a b ...

* 1894–1895: Petrus De Brabandere * 1895–1931: Gustavus Waffelaert * 1931–1952: Henricus Lamiroy * 1952–1984: Emiel-Jozef De Smedt * 1984–2010: Roger Joseph Vangheluwe * 2010–2015:

Jozef De Kesel Jozef De Kesel (born 17 June 1947) is a Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been a cardinal since 2016 and Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels since 2015. He served as Bishop of Bruges from 2010 to 2015. Early life De Kesel was b ...

, later promoted Metropolitan Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels * 2016–present:

Lode Aerts Lode Aerts (born 2 October 1959), identified also as Lodewijk Aerts, is a Belgian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been Bishop of Bruges since December 2016. Biography Lode Aerts is a native of Geraardsbergen, diocese of Ghent. He attende ...

Notes

External links and sources

GCatholic
{{Authority control

1834 establishments in Belgium

Statistics

History

Ordinaries

See also

Notes

External links and sources