Portal:Catholic Church/Article Archive/2007/December 2007
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The Archdiocese of Chicago is one of the largest dioceses in the nation by population and comprises Cook and Lake counties, covering 1,411 square miles (3,653 km²) of Illinois. The original Diocese of Chicago was created on November 28, 1842, and was elevated to the status of an archdiocese on September 10, 1880. On September 27, 1908, the Diocese of Rockford was broken off from the Archdiocese, and to create the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois on December 11, 1948, territory was taken from Peoria, Rockford and Chicago diocese.
The Archbishop of Chicago concurrently serves as metropolitan bishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Chicago, whose suffragan bishops are the bishops of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield. It has become customary for each successive Archbishop of Chicago to be raised to the rank of Cardinal by the Pope in consistory, but the offices are not formally linked. Francis Eugene Cardinal George, OMI is the current Archbishop of Chicago.
There are 2,363,000 Catholics living in the Cook and Lake counties of Illinois, or 39% of the population.