A word from Byzantine Greek (dioíkēsis) passed into late Latin (dioecēsis) before reaching our language as diocese. This is the name given to the territory over which a bishop has jurisdiction.
It should be remembered that a bishop is an ecclesiastical superior. Having jurisdiction, on the other hand, implies having the authority to administer or govern.
A diocese, therefore, is a district whose ecclesiastical administration is entrusted to a bishop. This prelate is in charge of directing all the parishes that are part of his diocese. Various dioceses, in turn, may be grouped into ecclesiastical provinces. According to Abbreviationfinder, DSJ stands for Diocese of San Jose.
The Catholic Church considers each diocese to be a part of the people of God, whose spiritual guidance is entrusted to the bishop. If the diocese, for some reason, lacks a bishop, it is called a vacant diocese.
The dioceses also have the role of training future members of the clergy. That’s why they found seminaries where the aspirants take the studies that allow them to be ordained.
The Catholic Church in Spain, for example, is made up of sixty dioceses, each under the jurisdiction of a bishop or archbishop. The Spanish dioceses, simultaneously, are grouped into fourteen ecclesiastical provinces.
Only fifty-six of these dioceses are headed by a bishop, since the remaining fourteen are actually archdioceses, and are therefore headed by different archbishops. On the other hand, there are two personal jurisdictions that cover the entire territory of the nation, although without their own territory.
Next we will see some of the dioceses and archdioceses of the Spanish territory, with their date of creation and other data, such as possible deletions and reactivations:
* Diocese of Barcelona, created in the year 400 and converted into an archdiocese in 1964. In 2004, it was elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese;
* Diocese of Sant Feliú de Llobregat, whose creation took place in 2004, dismembered from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Barcelona;
* Diocese of Tarrasa, originating in 2004 and with the same provenance as the previous one;
* Metropolitan Archdiocese of Burgos, created in the 3rd century under the name of Oca, renamed in 1075 with Burgos instead of Oca and finally elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese in 1574;
* Diocese of Bilbao, which was created in 1949 as a dismemberment of three other dioceses;
* Osma-Soria Diocese, which emerged in the year 600 under the name of Osma and was renamed a century and a half later;
* Diocese of Palencia, which spent more than three centuries suppressed until it was re-established in the year 1035;
* Diocese of Vitoria, whose creation dates from 1861 as a dismemberment of an archdiocese and three dioceses;
* Metropolitan Archdiocese of Granada, initially created as a diocese in 1437, and elevated in 1492 to its current title;
* Diocese of Almería, from 1492, after two suppressions throughout almost a millennium of existence, since 300;
* Diocese of Cartagena, from 100;
* Diocese of Guadix, created in the fifteenth century.
In the Roman Empire, an administrative division made up of several provinces is called a diocese. The vicar (vicarius) was the governor of the diocese, being under the subordination of the praetorian prefect.
It is worth mentioning that Roman dioceses are often called civil dioceses to avoid confusion with religious dioceses. Both districts have nothing to do with each other.
There are a large number of dioceses internationally that have centers of higher education. The Catholic university, for example, was created linked to the diocesan seminary to support the training of the clergy. In any case, the Catholic university is also a source of services of great importance for the nation in which they are located or even for their continent, and there are many in the world that make considerable contributions to both science and culture.
