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The Hierarchical Structure of the Catholic Church in Australia
The Catholic Church in Australia is administratively and geographically divided into seven Archdioceses, and twenty-one Dioceses.
The capital cities of the Australian States are Archdioceses, as is the National Capital. However, the boundaries of each Archdiocese are by no means restricted to the respective city. In the case of the National Capital, the Archdiocese includes the Australian Capital Territory and part of New South Wales.
The Archdioceses and Dioceses are gathered into Provinces which as a general rule have the same boundaries as the States and Territories. The Provinces are known by the names of those Archdioceses (Metropolitan Sees) which are central to them. They are the Provinces of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The Province of Adelaide includes the Diocese of Port Pirie, which is partly in the Northern Territory and the Diocese of Darwin, which covers the remainder of the Northern Territory.
The Dioceses of a Province are described as Suffragan. The Archdiocese of Hobart and the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn have no Suffragan Dioceses, and they collaborate at the Provincial level with the Province of Melbourne and the Province of Sydney respectively.
Each Diocese is under the jurisdiction of a Bishop with the Bishops of Archdioceses having the rank of Archbishops.
To assist Diocesan Archbishops or Bishops, Auxiliary Bishops are sometimes appointed; they may be of episcopal or archiepiscopal rank.
The Archbishops and Bishops of all the Dioceses, Ordinariates and Eparchies together with the Auxiliary Bishops, constitute the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
The administrative divisions of the Church in Australia, which cover the whole geographical area and, therefore, are not part of any Province, are:- The Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas
- The Diocese of St Maroun of Sydney for Maronite Catholics
- The Melkite Diocese of Sydney for the Melkite Catholics
- The Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas, Australia
- The Eparchy (Diocese) of Ss Peter & Paul of Melbourne for the Ukrainian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite
- The Military Ordinariate for the Armed Services of Australia
- The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross
- The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei