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.