Shillong, Diocese of

SHILLONG, Diocese of. - Located in northeastern India, suffragan of Calcutta.

In 1889 the apostolic prefecture of Assam was erected, its territory being detached from the archdiocese of Calcutta and from the diocese of Krisnagar and entrusted to the Society of the Divine Savior. When the First World War broke out, the Salvatorian fathers, all of German nationality, were expelled, and so the S. Congr. of Propaganda appointed the archbishop of Calcutta as apostolic administrator. After the war ended, the prefecture of Assam was given to the Salesians of Don Bosco (1921) and on 9 July 1934 raised to a diocese with the name of S. Its territory includes the principality of Bhutan (46,600 sq. km., population 300,000). It has an area of 185,500 sq. km. with 7,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 4,000,000 are Hindus, 2,200,000 animists, 750,000 Muslims, 224,500 Protestants and 84,564 Catholics. The priests number 52, all foreign Salesians except 2 Indians, and 14 brothers. There are also 10 "Irish Christian Brothers," who have a flourishing college. Aiding the work of the missionaries are 111 sisters, for the most part foreign, belonging to 6 different institutes. There is 1 major seminary with 14 students or scholastics and 1 student with 19 boys.

The diocese, unique of its kind for the variety of its peoples, languages and climates, is surrounded to the north by the chains of the Himalaya and has two very fertile plains, separated from each other by high hills, where animist tribes live with the most disparate dialects and customs. Along the plain of the Brahmaputra, moreover, Hindus are in the majority, whereas in the plain of the Surna the majority is Muslim. Ecclesiastically it is divided into 3 districts or rural deaneries, 18 primary stations and 10 secondary stations. There are 710 catechists and 19 women catechists, 293 masters and 114 mistresses, 308 elementary schools, 23 middle schools of various grades. The mission also has 3 university colleges. The works of charity are represented by 4 hospitals, 15 dispensaries, 13 orphanages, 4 homes for the aged, 1 leper asylum, 26 oratories. It is one of the most promising dioceses of northern India. By decree of 12 July 1951 the civil districts of Lakimpur, North Lakimpur, Naga Hills, Sibsagar, Manipur and Sadya Fronjer Tract were detached, with a total of 3,300,000 inhabitants, of whom 30,000 are Catholics, and an area of 79,000 sq. km., in order to erect there the new diocese of Dibrugarh.

Pompeo Borgna