Cairns, Diocese of (CAIRNS, DIOCESI DI) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 200

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

CAIRNS, DIOCESE of. - A city in the province of Queensland, Australia, and a suffragan diocese of Brisbane. Its territory, comprising part of northern Queensland (336,885 sq. km.), was detached from the diocese of Brisbane in 1876 to form a pro-vicariate entrusted first to Italian priests, then in 1882 to the Irish Augustinians. Erected as an apostolic vicariate under the name of Cooktown in 1887, it became a diocese on 8 July 1941, taking the name of C. from the residence of the Ordinary, and was entrusted to the secular clergy.

Out of a total population of approximately 46,216 inhabitants, overwhelmingly Protestant, there were, according to the Australasian Catholic Directory of 1948 (pp. 328-31), 13,933 Catholics, with 12 parishes, 34 churches, 22 religious priests, 10 brothers, 92 sisters, and various schools with more than 2,000 pupils. The diocese appears destined for great development because of the prospects for substantial immigration.

BIBL.: AAS, 33 (1941), pp. 412-14; Henry W. Cleary, Cooktown, in Cath. Enc., IV, p. 350; and Anon. Cooktown, ibid., Supplement, I, p. 229; L. Gramatica, Australia, in Enc. Ital., V, pp. 415-17; MC, pp. 60-61. Corrado Morin

CAIRO, BISHOPRIC of the MARONITES and PATRIARCHAL VICARIATE for the MELKITES: V. EGITTO.