ECCLESIASTICAL CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS. — Almost from the beginnings of the Church, owing to the need to apportion work, the competence of bishops, presbyters, and deacons was delimited, with a given territory or a given community of the faithful entrusted to them. Then, as the organization of the Church became more complex, territorial or personal circumscriptions became increasingly widespread, until they were established, as at present, throughout the inhabited world.
The fundamental territorial circumscriptions are those headed by a prelate with episcopal or quasi-episcopal jurisdiction. They are principally the dioceses (v.), in place of which, in mission territories, there are more often apostolic vicariates or apostolic prefectures; and, in addition, those territories (generally of smaller extent) that do not form part of any diocese, such as abbeys nullius (v. ABATE), and prelatures nullius, or of any apostolic vicariate or prefecture, such as missions (or districts) sui iuris.
Territorial circumscriptions superior to those just enumerated are the ecclesiastical provinces (v.), headed by the metropolitan; and, in the Eastern Church, the patriarchates. In Italy there are also the conciliar regions, groupings of several provinces.
Territorial circumscriptions inferior to these are instead the parishes (often grouped into districts, deaneries, or vicariates forane: V. VACARIO), which are divisions of dioceses, and sometimes also of an abbey or prelature nullius; and the quasi-parishes, which are instead subdivisions (not always existing) of apostolic vicariates and prefectures.
Competence to establish or alter ecclesiastical circumscriptions belongs to ecclesiastical authority; in particular, in the Latin Church, it belongs to the Supreme Pontiff (who, according to the circumstances, makes use of the S. Congr. Consistorial or of Propaganda Fide or of the Congregation for the Oriental Church or of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs: V. CONGREGAZIONI ROMANE, SACRE) to establish, suppress, divide, or unite dioceses, and circumscriptions parallel or superior to them, or to alter their boundaries (CIC, can. 215 § 1); whereas it normally belongs to the Ordinary of the place to establish new parishes, transfer them, divide them, unite them, or alter their boundaries (cann. 1414 §§ 2-3, 1423, 1424, 1426, 1427), while their suppression is reserved to the Supreme Pontiff (can. 1422).
At times the Holy See grants civil authority, especially in concordats, a more or less extensive power to intervene in matters concerning alterations to ecclesiastical circumscriptions: among other things, there are examples of the granting of the right to propose changes (Austrian Concordat of 1933, art. 15 § 7); or, more often, of the right to prevent changes (or certain changes) from being introduced without the consent of the State (or at least without having first consulted the civil authority). In some cases the Holy See has undertaken to ensure that ecclesiastical circumscriptions coincide with civil ones, or, even without being obliged to do so, has brought about such coincidence, at least in part (among the numerous texts that might be cited on this point, only art. 16 of the Lateran Concordat is recalled), above all in order to facilitate communication between the faithful and their pastors.
Even in Religious Orders and Congregations, which nevertheless have an organization that is predominantly personal rather than territorial, territorial circumscriptions are not lacking, given the division into provinces (v.), which is always found in associations of a certain size.