CORPUS CHRISTI, DIOCESE of. - City in the State of Texas (USA) and seat of a diocese suffragan to S. Antonio. It comprises an area of approximately 22,000 sq. km. in southern Texas.
In 1948, out of 347,166 inhabitants, there were 248,500 Catholics under the direction of 54 diocesan priests and 79 religious; there are 68 parishes, 45 chapels, 93 missions, and 68 stations; 2 seminaries and 2 “High schools.” The diocese also includes 14 female and 6 male religious institutions, namely Benedictines (Subiaco Abbey, Arkansas), Franciscans, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Dominicans, Missionaries of the Holy Family, and Marist Brothers. In 1947 there were 299 conversions.
On 18 Sept. 1874, at the request of the 3rd Provincial Council of New Orleans, this territory was detached from the diocese of Galveston, of which it had formed part since 1841, first to constitute the apostolic vicariate of Brownsville, with its seat at Loredo, and then (23 March 1912) the diocese of C. C., which took the name of the city in which the bishop resided, and remained suffragan to New Orleans until the erection of S. Antonio as a metropolitan see in 1926.