The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. It is comprised of the Counties of Alameda and Contra Costa. Also known as the See of Oakland, it is led by a bishop which pastors the motherchurch in the City of Oakland, the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Replacing the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales which was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the new cathedral will be completed in 2007.
As a reaction to the exponential expansion of the cities of Oakland and San Francisco, the Archdiocese of San Francisco was split into two entities: East Bay and West Bay. Pope John XXIII established the Diocese of Oakland from the East Bay section in January 1962.
Today, the See of Oakland remains a ceremonial suffragan of the ecclesiastical province of the Archbishop of San Francisco. Its fellow suffragans include the Dioceses of Honolulu, Las Vegas, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Stockton.
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