Bishop of Antwerp
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Diocese of Antwerp Dioecesis Antverpiensis Diocèse d'Anvers (French) Bistum von Antwerpen (German) Bisdom Antwerpen (Dutch) |
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| Location | |
| Country |  Belgium |
| Ecclesiastical province | Mechelen-Brussels |
| Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 2,570 km2 (990 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2015) 1,566,000 1,208,000 (77.1%) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 8 December 1961 |
| Cathedral | Notre Dame Cathedral in Antwerp |
| Patron saint | Ignatius of Loyola |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Johan Bonny |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | André-Joseph Léonard |
| Map | |
 The territorial extent of the diocese of Antwerp. Note that it is smaller than the Province of Antwerp |
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The Diocese of Antwerp is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. The diocese was restored in 1961. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. Its see is the Cathedral of Our Lady.
In the Middle Ages Antwerp was within the see of Cambrai. In 1559, at the instance of Philip II of Spain, a new arrangement of the episcopal sees of the Low countries was made by Pope Paul IV. Three archiepiscopal and fourteen episcopal sees were created, and all external jurisdiction, however ancient, abolished. Antwerp became one of the six suffragans of Mechlin, and remained such until the end of the eighteenth century.
This step did not meet with the goodwill of the merchants of the city, who feared the introduction of the Inquisition and the costliness of an episcopal establishment, and urged the transfer of the new see to Leuven, where it would be less offensive to the non-Catholic elements of their city. Catholic monastic interests were active, being now called on by the Pope to provide for the support of the new see. Finally, the famous theologian Franciscus Sonnius (from Son in Brabant) was transferred from the diocese of Bois-le-Duc to Antwerp in 1569 as first bishop of the new see, and governed it until his death in 1576.
Ten years of religious and political conflict elapsed before another bishop could be appointed in the person of Laevinus Torrentius (Lieven van der Beken or Liévin van der Beken), a Leuven theologian, graceful humanist, and diplomat. He died in 1595. The scholarly Miraeus (Le Mire) was Bishop of Antwerp from 1604 to 1611, and was succeeded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a series of fifteen bishops, the last of whom was Cornelius Franciscus Nelis, librarian of the Catholic University of Leuven and Bishop of Antwerp from 1785 to his death in 1798.
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Wikipedia