A Diocese Rises from Its Ashes in Kosovo

Pope Francis has decided to make the institutions of the Catholic Church in Kosovo more lasting by transforming the Apostolic Administration of Prizren into the diocese of Prizren-Prishtina.

The first bishop of this new diocese that will be directly attached to the Holy See and not included in an ecclesiastical province for the time being, is Bishop Dodë Gjergjii, who has been the Apostolic Administrator of Kosovo since 2006.

An apostolic administration is an intermediary structure whose goal is to organize the life of the Catholic Church in missionary lands, and often on territories whose status is still disputed.

The Apostolic Administration of Prizren was created in 2000 for the Catholics of Kosovo, a region in southern Serbia placed under the administration of the UN in 1999, after the conflict between the Serbians and Albanians. The independence of Kosovo, proclaimed in 2008, has not yet been recognized by the Holy See.

This new diocese is like a phoenix rising from its ashes; the first Catholic diocese of Prizren existed from the 10th century to the 18th century, at which time it was attached to the diocese of Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia. The Apostolic Administration of Prizren was detached from this diocese of Skopje-Prizren in 2000.