CHIAPAS, Diocese of. — In the Republic of Mexico, a suffragan of Antequera. It comprises the entire State of Chiapas, with an area of 73,000 sq. km. and a population of 630,000 inhabitants (half Indians and half whites or mestizos), of whom 615,000 are Catholics. The diocese is divided into 40 parishes, has 182 churches with 27 diocesan priests and some regulars. This scarcity of clergy is mainly due to the religious persecution of past years, after which the seminary was reopened following a long period of dispersal. The territory now forming the Diocese of Chiapas belonged, from 1526 to 1536, to the first diocese nominally existing in Mexico, called Carolense; it then passed to the Diocese of Guatemala, but as early as March 19, 1539, Paul III (Inter multiplices) erected it into an independent diocese. From its foundation, Chiapas became an important center of evangelization, thanks to its second bishop, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, a staunch defender of the Indians against the greed of the conquerors, for which he earned the glorious title of "padre de los indios."
The first missionaries were Dominicans and contributed greatly to raising the moral and civil level of the Indians, whom they gathered into villages, or reductions, catechized, and taught trades and professions, which they still practice today. The episcopal see is at San Cristóbal de las Casas, formerly Ciudad Real, founded by Diego Mazariegos (1528), which possesses a fine cathedral and 19 other churches.