The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Ljubljana (Latin: Archidioecesis Labacensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Slovenia. It was erected as the Diocese of Ljubljana by Pope Eugene IV on 6 December 1461 and was immediately subject to the Holy See from its creation until erected as an archdiocese. Its territory corresponded with the Austrian crownland of Carniola. Prior to the formation of this diocese, its area had been part of the ecclesiastical territory of the Patriarch of Aquileia since 811.
In 1952, a group of communists set auxiliary bishop Anton Vovk alight with petroleum, inflicting severe burns on him.[1] The diocese was elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese on 22 December 1961. Today it has two suffragan sees, Koper (since 1977) and Novo Mesto (since 2006). It is the primatial see of Slovenia; one living former archbishop, Franc Rode, CM, was promoted to a Curial office (Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life) and made a Cardinal, demonstrating the importance of this archdiocese and its archbishops.
The archdiocese's motherchurch and thus seat of its archbishop is the Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Ljubljana; it also contains minor basilicas in Brezje and Stična. The current Archbishop of Ljubljana, and thus Primate of Slovenia, is His Excellency Anton Stres, having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on 28 November 2009.
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