Diocese of Willemstad Dioecesis Gulielmopolitana Bisdom Willemstad | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Aruba (NL) Curaçao (NL) Sint Maarten (NL) Caribbean Netherlands |
| Ecclesiastical province | Port of Spain |
| Metropolitan | Port of Spain |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 993 km2 (383 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics | (as of 2008) 295,264 217,851 (73.8%) |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Latin Rite |
| Established | 1758 (as Apostolic Prefecture of Curaçao) 1842 Apostolic Vicariate of Curaçao 1958 Diocese of Willemstad |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Willemstad |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Luigi Antonio Secco |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Joseph Everard Harris |
| Map | |
 | |
| Website | |
| Website of the Diocese | |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Willemstad (Latin: Dioecesis Gulielmopolitana; Dutch: Bisdom Willemstad; Papiamento: Diosesano (di Obispado) di Willemstad) is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in the Caribbean. The diocese encompasses the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean: the countries (Dutch: landen) Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten (the southern half of St. Martin) and the islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba (which are part of the Netherlands). The cathedra is in the city of Curaçao. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, and a member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.
The Diocese of Willemstad was erected in 1752 as the Prefecture Apostolic of Curaçao. It was elevated to an apostolic vicariate on 20 September 1842 and to the Diocese of Willemstad on 28 April 1958. The language spoken in many of the Catholic churches here is Papiamento and English. The diocese has maintained a website in this language and in English. Some priests are members of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), Order of Preachers (OP), Michaelites (CSMA), and Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB).