Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas
The Archdiocese of Kaunas () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. The episcopal see is in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. The archdiocese's motherchurch and cathedral is Kaunas Cathedral Basilica; it is also home to a Minor Basilica in a town of Šiluva, in the region of Samogitia. History. Predecessor of the diocese was established according to directions from the Council of Constance on October 24, 1417 as the Diocese of Samogitia (; ), with a see in Medininkai. It was the second Catholic diocese in ethnic  Lithuanian parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On March 25, 1798 it lost territory to establish the Diocese of Wigry. On July 3, 1848 it gained territory from the persisting then Diocese of Vilnius, now Lithuania's other Metropolitan see. On June 9, 1920 it lost territory to the existing Diocese of Riga (in Latvia), while in the next year it gained territory from the persisting Diocese of Sejny (in Poland). The Apostolic constitution, issued by Pius XI, intended to structure the diocesan territories in accordance with the actual boundaries of Lithuanian Republic after the Declaration of Independence in  1918. Due to fact, that claimed Lithuanian capital city Vilnius and the eastern parts of the country were seized by Polish troops in 1920 and annexed by Poland in 1922, Kaunas became not only the Temporary capital of Lithuania but also was promoted by Pope Pius XI on April 4, 1926 into the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kaunas, initially with as suffragan sees Vilkaviškis and Telšiai in the new Lithuanian ecclesiastical province. The then diocese of Vilnius was also elevated into a Metropolitan Archbishopric with its ecclesiastical province on temporarily Polish areas. It enjoyed a Papal Visit from Pope John Paul  II in September 1993. On May 28, 1997, parts of the archdiocese have been ceded to the newly founded suffragan Diocese of Šiauliai. Province. Its ecclesiastical province comprises the Metropolitan's own archbishopric and the following suffragan sees :