REGIONE CONCILIARE. – This is the name given to the districts into which Italy was divided by the decree of 15 February 1919 of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation for the purpose of holding periodic meetings of the various Ordinaries.
The aforementioned document established that in Italy, instead of the provincial council (v. CONFERENZE, II), a regional plenary council should be held every twenty years; this was followed by the circular of 22 March 1919, which partly modified the regions: Emilia was separated from Romagna and Lazio was divided into two regions, upper (Regione Cimina) and lower, while the diocese of Lipari was added to the Sicilian region. For Veneto, Lombardy and Liguria nothing was changed, since in these regions the ecclesiastical province coincided with the civil region, and the provisions on the provincial council continued to apply. For Piedmont, which is divided into two ecclesiastical provinces, the bishops were left free, with apostolic assent, to hold either the regional plenary council or the provincial council. The circular also expressly noted that for Italy the episcopal conferences were to continue to be annual and not quinquennial, as prescribed for the world by can. 291 § 1 of the CIC.
A new and important adjustment, with slight modifications to the region, was made by Pius XI with the motu proprio *Qua Cura* of 8 December 1938 (AAS, 30 [1938], pp. 410 ff.), by which eighteen regional ecclesiastical tribunals of first instance were created (Turin, Milan, Genoa, Modena, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Perugia, Fermo, Vicariate of Rome, Chieti, Benevento, Salerno, Naples, Bari, Reggio Calabria, Palermo, Cagliari) and ten regional appellate tribunals (Milan, Genoa, Turin, Bologna, Venice, Florence, Sacred Roman Rota, Benevento, Naples, Vicariate of Rome) with exclusive jurisdiction over marriage nullity cases. Further Norms, issued on 10 July 1940 by the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments (AAS, 32 [1940], p. 304), regulate the functioning of the regional tribunals.