Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southern United States comprised of the southern counties of the state of Georgia. It is led by a prelate bishop who serves as pastor of the mother church, Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in the City of Savannah.
The diocese was canonically erected on July 3, 1850 by Pope Pius IX, taking its territories from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Pope Pius XI changed the ecclesiastical territory's name to become the conjoined Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta on January 5, 1937 to reflect the growth of Catholicism in the state. The number of Catholics in the northern counties of Georgia had grown so much that Pope Pius XII divided the ecclesiastical territory on July 2, 1956 and created the Diocese of Savannah and the Diocese of Atlanta. (In 1962 the Diocese of Atlanta was elevated to the status of an archdiocese, becoming the center of the Ecclesiastical Province of the same name.)
