 When the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State was enacted, doing away with public-law religious corporations, this did not apply to the Strasbourg diocese which was then being within Germany.After World War I, Alsace along with the diocese was returned to France, but the status from the concordat has been preserved since as part of the Local law in Alsace-Moselle.The diocese was elevated to Archdiocese of Strasbourg on 1 June 1988 by Pope John Paul II but not as Metropolitan of an ecclesiastical province and remains exempt, so having nor being a suffragan.