An earlier diocese of Bruges was established on 12 May 1558, on territory split off from the
Diocese of Tournai, as part of the great Habsburg reform of the church in the then
Spanish Low Countries. Its see,
St. Donatian's Cathedral, was destroyed in a fire in 1799 during the aftermath of the
French Revolution. During the reforms under the
Napoleonic Concordate, the diocese was suppressed on 15 July 1801 and its territory merged into the
Diocese of Ghent. On 17 December 1832, shortly after the independence of
Belgium, the territory was restored as the pre-diocesan
Apostolic Administration of
West Flanders. On 27 May 1834, the territory was again promoted to diocese and renamed after its see, Bruges, while the incumbent Apostolic Administrator became Suffragan Bishop. On 31 May 1967 the diocese lost a portion of territory to the much older
Diocese of Tournai, shortly after a reshuffle of provincial borders involving a few municipalities, notably
Mouscron being transferred to the
province of Hainaut (to which the bishopric of Tournai is now limited). In 1985 the diocese of Bruges experienced a papal visit from
Pope John Paul II, who on 17 May gave a homily on the horrors of war at Ypres as part of his pastoral visit to the Low Countries. A 2010 scandal saw Bishop
Roger Vangheluwe, a confessed and hardly remorseful pederast, forced into early retirement. == Ordinaries ==