Territorial Abbacy

Monte Cassino, one of the Church's territorial abbeys

A territorial abbacy is a defined territory entrusted to an abbot who governs its faithful as their proper pastor apart from a diocesan structure.

Nature of the office

The abbot’s territorial jurisdiction is ecclesiastical governance attached to the office; it does not make priestly ordination into episcopal ordination. Territorial abbacies are now rare and are equivalent in law to dioceses where applicable.

Canonical place

The Holy See erects and regulates a territorial abbacy. Its abbot governs clergy and faithful in the territory according to universal law, proper law, and the terms of erection, while the monastic community retains its own internal order.