CAXIAS, DIOCESI di. - In Brazil; State of Rio Grande do Sul. Erected on 8 Sept. 1934, by dismemberment from the archdiocese of Porto Alegre, of which it is a suffragan.
It lies in a region colonized by Italian emigrants, and is the largest wine-producing centre in Brazil; it covers an area of 12,416 sq. km., with a population of 220,000 inhabitants, of whom 216,000 are Catholics, distributed among 41 parishes. The secular clergy consists of 53 diocesan priests and 60 regulars (Franciscans, Capuchins, Scalabrinians, Passionists, Josephites). The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles, the Sisters of St. Joseph, those of the Heart of Mary of Our Lady of the Apparition, and the Pallottines collectively administer 15 girls’ colleges, 6 hospitals, an orphanage, a parish school, and a novitiate. Titular saint of the cathedral and the diocese: St. Teresa. Diocesan seminarians pursue their studies at the central seminary of S. Leopoldo.
Maurilio Cesar de Lima