Roman Catholic Diocese of Lezhë
The Diocese of Lezha (Latin: Dioecesis Alexiensis ) is a location in Albany Catholic Diocese. The area of the diocese includes the coastal lands north and south of the episcopal city of Lezha.
History
For the period of late antiquity only a bishop of Lissus is occupied. 592 got a certain John, a diocese in Italy awarded after his episcopal Lissus had been overrun by the barbarians (probably the Slavs ). Probably the diocese has gone down during this time and was re- built until centuries later.
The next mention of a bishop of Lezha falls into the 14th century. Ever since that time Lezha was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Shkodër -Pult. In the second half of the 15th century the territory of the diocese was conquered by the Ottomans; the episcopal Lezha finally came in 1506 from the possession of the Venetians under the rule of the Turks. The following two centuries were a period of decline for Christianity; the majority of the population embraced Islam. The See of Lezha was mostly occupied by the middle of the 17th century with strangers and the bishops lived mostly in Italian exile. Since the beginning of the 18th century, the Papal Propaganda Fide increased its efforts to support the remaining Albanian Catholics and to reorganize the church structures in the country. Antonio Criesesi ( Alb. Kryezezi ), a trained at the Roman College of the Propaganda Congregation Franciscan priest in 1750 Bishop of Lezha. He returned three years later a comprehensive report on the situation in his diocese.
1888 Affiliate Pope Leo XIII. Alexander monastery in Orosh with five parishes in the Diocese of Lezha and raised it to the Territorial Abbey. By 1894, the other seven parishes of the Mirdita Lezha to Orosh were assigned.
The Franciscan Frano Gjini was early in 1946 Bishop of Lezha, after a short time before the Communists took power in Albania. At the same delegate of the Holy See, he was one of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of Albania, which were the first wave of persecution of the communist regime to the victim. He was arrested for allegedly conspiring with foreign powers, convicted in a show trial and executed in March 1948. Then the bishop's seat remained vacant Lezha over 50 years. 1967 all of the remaining churches in the diocese was closed by the communist authorities, destroyed or henceforth used for profane purposes.
After the re-authorization of religions in Albania in 1990, Pope John Paul II re-established the Bishopric and appointed 2000 Father Ottavio Vitale RCJ the Apostolic Administrator of the year. This was on 23 November 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. elevated to bishop of Lezha.