The Archdiocese of Shkodër–Pult, historically known as Scutari, is one of two Metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in Albania. The archdiocese's cathedral is St. Stephen's Cathedral in Shkoder, dedicated to St. Stephen Protomartyr.

Statistics

As of 2014, it pastorally served 166,700 Catholics (70.0% of 238,000 total) on 4,113 km2 in 40 parishes and 3 missions with 55 priests (21 diocesan, 34 religious), 220 lay religious (62 brothers, 158 sisters), and 9 seminarians.

Ecclesiastical province

The archdiocese has two suffragan sees:

History

The diocese of Scutari (Shkodrë) was established circa 305. The first known bishop was Bassus (387). The bishops of Scutari were at first subject to the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki, Greece), Primatial see of all Illyricum, but when Byzantine emperor Justinian I transferred the primacy, they became suffragans of the Archdiocese of Justiniana Prima. In the early Middle Ages Scutari was suffragan of the Archdiocese of Dioclea (now Metropolitan of Bar, in Montenegro). From 1063 to 1886 53 bishops of Scutari are known (none to the middle of the twelfth century). In 1571 it gained territory from the suppressed diocese of Suacium (Svač, Šas). The ancient diocese of Ulcinium (Ulcinj, Dulcigno), in the territory of Scutari, was, in 1571, occupied by the Ottoman Turks and ceased to exist. Its bishops were suffragans of the Archbishop of Antivari. In 1650 it gained territory from the suppressed Diocese of Drivasto. Other ancient sees in this territory were the Diocese of Dinnastrum and Diocese of Balazum. On 14 March 1867, it was promoted as Archdiocese of Shkodrë (Scutari) when Scutari was aeque principaliter united with the Archdiocese of Antivari, and in this way Pope Pius IX made Scutari an archdiocese. The first archbishop of the united diocese, Karl Pooten, native of Teveren near Geilenkirchen, Germany, who had been Apostolic Administrator of Antivari (1834–1855), died at Scutari on 15 January 1886. On 23 October 1886, the Archdiocese of Scutari was again separated from that of Antivari, and remained an archdiocese with three suffragan dioceses: the Alessio, Sappa and Pulati. Pope John Paul II visited the archdicoese in April 1993. Several years later, on 25 January 2005, John Paul II suppressed the Diocese of Pult, and renamed Shkodrë to the Archdiocese of Shkodrë–Pult, incorporating territory from the former diocese.

Ordinaries

Below is an incomplete list of the ordinaries of the Archdiocese of Shkodër-Pult, all of whom are Latin Rite.

Sources and external links