Diocese of Hildesheim Dioecesis Hildesiensis Bistum Hildesheim | |
|---|---|
 St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim | |
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| Location | |
| Country | Germany |
| Territory | Hildesheim, Lower Saxony |
| Ecclesiastical province | Hamburg |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2013) 5,349,318 616,210 (11.5%) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | 815 |
| Cathedral | St. Mary's Cathedral |
| Patron saint | St. Godehard Mary, Mother of God |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Heiner Wilmer |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Stefan Heße |
| Auxiliary Bishops | Hans-Georg Koitz (emeritus), Nikolaus Schwerdtfeger, Heinz-Gunter Bongartz |
| Map | |
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| Website | |
| bistum-hildesheim.de | |
The Diocese of Hildesheim (Latin: Dioecesis Hildesiensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. Founded in 815 as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious, his son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop.
The modern Diocese of Hildesheim presently covers those parts of the state of Lower Saxony that are east of the River Weser, northern neighborhoods in Bremen, and the city of Bremerhaven. The current bishop is Heiner Wilmer who was appointed in 2018. The diocese is a suffragan to the Archdiocese of Hamburg since 1994. Originally Hildesheim was suffragan to Mainz until 1805. Then it was an exempt diocese until 1930, before it was part of the Middle German Ecclesiastical Province with Paderborn Archdiocese as metropolitan between 1930 and 1994.