page_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Roermond
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Roermond / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Roermond kathedraal interieur This is an image of rijksmonument number 32552
context_page_description: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Roermond is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The diocese is one of the seven Roman-Catholic suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht. The territory of the diocese covers the Province of Limburg.
  Its cathedral episcopal see is the Cathedral of St. Christopher in Roermond.
  Its main pilgrimage sites are Kapel in het Zand and Valkenburg.
  The Dean of Roermond is responsible for the parishes in that city and a few other municipalities in the diocese.
context_section_description: Originally established on 12 May 1559, on territories split off from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cologne (Keulen, now in Germany) and Diocese of Liège (Luik, now in Belgium).
  During the Napoleonic era, on 1801.07.15 it lost territory to establish the Apostolic Vicariate of Grave–Nijmegen, on 1801.11.29 the diocese was suppressed, its territory being divided between the above vicariate and to establish the (German) Diocese of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle).
  It was re-established in 1840 by the Holy See as (pre-diocesan) Apostolic Vicariate of Limburg. In 1853 it was promoted as Diocese of Roermond and gained territory from the Belgian Diocese of Liège.
  During the sixties of the twentieth century, the relatively strong demarcation between the Catholic south on one side and the Calvinist west and north on the other side of the Netherlands started to diminish. In the second half of the twentieth century a rapid secularization and strong loss of religious affiliation have taken place in Limburg.
caption: Roermond's St. Christopher cathedral
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