The Holy See announced on September 26 the elevation to diocese of the apostolic administration of Estonia. This new diocese, which receives the name of Tallinn, maintains its territorial configuration and "its status as an Ecclesiastical Circumscription immediately subject to the Holy See".
With this elevation to the rank of diocese, Pope Francis has appointed Msgr. Philippe Jean-Charles Jourdan bishop of this local church. This French priest, a member of Opus Dei, was the apostolic administrator of Estonia since 2005 and titular bishop of Pertusa.
The news of the elevation to a diocese comes in the midst of the celebrations for the first centenary of the Apostolic Administration of Estonia. A community that in the last 50 years has multiplied by 1,000 and that maintains a cordial and fruitful relationship with the Lutheran Church in Estonia with which it shares "positions very close to those of the Catholic Church on family issues, marriage between a man and a woman, or the defense of life" as Monsignor Jourdan pointed out in a recent interview with Omnes.
In addition, the Estonian Catholic community hopes that in the near future the Pope will give the green light for the beatification of the martyred Bishop Eduard Profittlich SJ.
