Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz


The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English by its French name of Mayence is a Latin rite of the Catholic church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metropolitan Archbishopric of Mainz and demoted back in 1802 to bishopric. The diocese is suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Freiburg. Its district is located in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. The seat of the diocese is in Mainz at the Cathedral dedicated to Saints Martin and Stephen. It is the only Roman Catholic diocese in the world – other than Rome – which bears the title of a Holy See.

History

Under Article 14 of the Reichskonkordat of 1933, which remains in force, the determination of the bishop to head the episcopal see and the composition of the chapter are governed by the provisions of Baden Concordat of 1932.
As per 2014, it pastorally served 749,583 Catholics on 7,692 km² in 319 parishes, 504 priests, 124 deacons, 447 lay religious, 19 seminarians.
It is divided into 20 deaneries, which in turn are divided into 136 pastoral care units. In 2007 these parish associations or parish groups included all 335 parishes and other chaplaincies of the diocese. Pastoral units on the parish level have been introduced as a result of a profound structural change in the Catholic Church in Germany in many dioceses, the constitution of these units was determined by particular law , i.e., allowing for differences from one diocese to another. In the diocese of Mainz a parish group may be several parishes merged under the leadership of a single pastor. The parishes retain their church and state church legal personality. The pastor is attached to a pastoral team and a pastoral council. Parish associations, however, are combinations of several parishes, each with its own pastor. Several parish groups can join together to form a parochial associations.

Episcopal ordinaries

;''Suffragan Bishops of Mainz, 1802–present

Archdiocese (to 1802)

Diocese (1802–present)

Catholic Private Schools

The most important educational institution of the Diocese is the Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Mainz. Besides the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz and the dioceses of Cologne, Limburg, Speyer and Trier belong to the initiators of this university.
There are also other schools as the Edith-Stein-Schule in Darmstadt, Liebfrauenschule in Bensheim, the Episcopal Willigis-Gymnasium in Mainz, Abendgymnasium Ketteler of Mainz and the Episcopal College Willigis secondary school in Mainz.

Facilities at state universities

The diocese maintains three facilities at state universities. The most important of them is the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Mainz. In addition, there are at University of Giessen, the Institute for Catholic theology and their didactics, which is located at the Department of History and Cultural Studies. At the Technische Universität Darmstadt is an institute for theology and social ethics.

Bildungswerk der Diözese Mainz

The Bildungswerk der Diözese Mainz promotes "... the church's adult education in the diocese from the parish to the diocesan level..." The Bildungswerk is also a member of the Catholic Adult Education Hesse - Regional Working Group.

Other educational institutions

Cathedral and Major basilicas

Local feasts of the diocese are: