The Diocese of Stockholm (; ) is an exempt Latin Catholic ecclesiastical bishopric in Sweden and the only Catholic diocese established in Sweden since the Protestant Reformation. The diocese belongs to no ecclesiastical province but forms an episcopal conference with its Nordic neighbours. Its territory includes 44 parishes and covers the entire country of Sweden.Its cathedral episcopal see is Saint Eric's Cathedral in Sweden's capital city of Stockholm. The former Catholic cathedrals have been possessions of the Church of Sweden since the reformation, along with other ecclesiastical infrastructure of the pre-Reformation Catholic dioceses in Sweden. History Prior to the Reformation in Sweden, there were a number of Catholic dioceses, including the former dioceses of Linköping, Lund, Sigtuna, Skara, Strängnäs, Västerås, Växjö. By 1550, all of the episcopates of the Catholic bishops in Sweden, including present-day Finland, came to an end. Following the reformation, most of these dioceses were reinstated as parts of the Church of Sweden. In 1582, any remaining Catholics in Sweden and elsewhere in Northern Europe were placed under the jurisdiction of a papal nuncio in Cologne. The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, on its establishment in 1622, took charge of the vast missionary field, which – at its third session – it divided among the nuncio of Brussels (for the Catholics in Denmark and Norway), the nuncio at Cologne (much of Northern Germany) and the nuncio to Poland (Sweden and Mecklenburg). In 1688 Sweden became part of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Nordic Missions and the German Paderborn bishops functioned as administrators of the apostolic vicariate. In 1781 the Vicariate of the Nordic Missions was split, and the Apostolic Prefecture of Sweden was established, which jurisdiction over Sweden and Finland. On 23 September 1783 the apostolic prefecture was promoted to the Apostolic Vicariate of Sweden, seated in the Swedish capital Stockholm. The newly Vicariate of Sweden was entitled to a titular bishop, but the positions appears to have been left vacant until 1862. Over the course of its authority, the Vicariate had jurisdiction over the territory of Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Finland was split off in 1809, becoming part of the Russian-imperial Mohilev Archdiocese. Norway became part of the Vicariate in 1834; its norther regions were split off in 1855 to become the Apostolic Prefecture of the North Pole while the southern regions were split off on 7 August 1868, eventually forming the Apostolic Prefecture of