History

Founding

The Apostolic Administration of Southern Albania was established by Pope Pius XII with the Apostolic Constitution Dyrrachiensis (Albaniae Australis), given in Rome at St Peter’s on 11 November 1939, in the first year of his pontificate.

With the apostolic letter Sancta Dei Ecclesia of 25 March 1938, Pope Pius XI had placed the southern part of Albania, until then part of the Archdiocese of Durrës, under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Church. As the number of the faithful of both the Latin and the Byzantine rite kept growing and the Archbishop of Durrës could hardly provide for them, the Apostolic Delegate in Albania, Archbishop Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris, titular Archbishop of Philippi, asked the Pope to separate this part from the Archdiocese of Durrës and make it a new Apostolic Administration.

Having heard the cardinals of the Congregation for the Eastern Church and the Archbishop of Durrës, the Pope separated from the Archdiocese of Durrës the territory of southern Albania within the prefectures of Elbasan, Korçë, Berat, Vlorë and Gjirokastër, and established the Apostolic Administration named Albaniae Australis, under the Congregation for the Eastern Church. He gave the Apostolic Administrator full jurisdiction over all the parishes and missions, existing and future, and over all the faithful of both rites, Latin and Byzantine, within its borders.

The Constitution was signed by Cardinal Tommaso Pio Boggiani, OP, Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, and by Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, Secretary of the Congregation for the Eastern Church, and published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Apostolic Administrators

• 1940–1945 Mgr Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris † Resigned in 1945.
• 1946–1949 Blessed Mgr Vinçenc Prennushi, OFM † Died on 19 March 1949.
• 1949–1992 Sede vacante.
• 1992–1996 Mgr Ivan Dias † Appointed Archbishop of Bombay on 8 November 1996.
• 1996–2017 Mgr Hil Kabashi, OFM From 3 December 1996; retired on 15 June 2017.
• 2017–2024 Mgr Giovanni Peragine, B. From 15 June 2017; appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Shkodër-Pult on 20 May 2024.
• 2026 Fr Flavio Cavallini, OFM Since 25 April 2026.