Roman Catholic Diocese of Rio Branco


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rio Branco is a Latin suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Porto Velho.
Its cathedral episcopal see is the Marian Catedral Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, dedicated to Our Lady of Nazareth, in the city of Rio Branco, Acre state, Brazil.

History

On 4 October 1919, Pope Benedict XV established the Territorial Prelature of Acre and Purus, named after the Amazonian rivers Acre and Purus, on canonical territory split off from the then Diocese of Amazonas.
Pope Pius XI changed the name of the prelature to the Territorial Prelature of São Peregrino Laziosi no Alto Acre e Alto Purus on 10 December 1926, but its original name was restored on 26 April 1958 by Pope Pius XII.
The territorial prelature was elevated to a bishopric and hence renamed after its see as Diocese of Rio Branco by Saint John Paul II on 15 February 1986.

Statistics

As per 2014, it pastorally serves 443,000 Catholics on 104,473 km² in 32 parishes and 5 missions with 33 priests, 22 deacons, 105 lay religious and 18 seminarians.

Ordinaries

Territorial Bishop-Prelates of Acre and Purus