Pope delegates Card. Tauran to Lille Archdiocese centenary celebrations
August 24, 2013 - Pope Francis on Saturday delegated Card. Jean-Louis Tauran, President
of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, as his special representative
to the centenary celebrations of the Archdiocese of Lille, in northern France. The
centenary celebrations are scheduled for 26 and 27 October. Lille Diocese was created
on Oct. 25, 1913 by Pope Pius X, and on Nov. 21, Msgr. Alesis Charost became its first
bishop. It was then a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Cambrai. Pope Benedict XVI
raised it to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese on March 30, 2008, with Cambrai
and Arras as its suffragans. Lille Archdiocese is currently headed by its first Archbishop,
Laurent Bernard Marie Ulrich. It has 116 parishes divided into five deaneries with
a population of just over 1,575,000 inhabitants.