Pope makes massive changes in Barcelona, appoints new bishops

Vatican City, Jun 14, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Today the Holy Father erected two new dioceses in Cataluña, Spain, from the territory taken from the archdiocese of Barcelona, which has at the same time been raised to a metropolitan see.

The two new dioceses created are the see of Terrassa and that of Sant Feliu de Llobregat. The new diocese of Terrassa has about 1 million inhabitants, 12

deaneries, and 120 parishes. The diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat has 670,000 inhabitants and 9 deaneries and 121 parishes.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Holy See press office, who made the announcement, said that “dividing the great archdiocese of Barcelona has been under study for several decades. In the early 1980s, in fact, the then archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Narciso Jubany, B.M., had taken several steps with the prospect of creating two new dioceses.”

After this division, the population of the archdiocese of Barcelona will remain about 2.5 million.

The Holy Father appointed Bishop Josep Angel Saiz Meneses, auxiliary of Barcelona, Spain, as bishop of Terrassa, and Bishop Agustin Cortes Soriano of Ibiza, Spain, as bishop of Sant Feliu di Llobregat.

The new Metropolitan Archbishop of Barcelona is Lluis Martinez Sistach, formerly metropolitan archbishop of Tarragona, Spain.

He succeeds Cardinal Ricardo Maria Carles Gordo whose resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Barcelona was accepted upon having reached the age limit.  The resignation from the pastoral care of the office of auxiliary of Barcelona, Spain, presented by Bishop Pere Tena Garriga upon having reached the age limit was also accepted.

The Pope also appointed Fr. Jaume Pujol Balcells, professor of theology and director of the Superior Institute of Religious Sciences in the Faculty of Theology at University of Navarre as metropolitan archbishop of Tarragona, Spain.  The archbishop-elect was born in Guissona, Spain in 1944 and was ordained a priest in 1973.