CURITIBA, ARCHDIOCESE OF
In the State of Paraná, Brazil, it is the metropolitan see of the homonymous ecclesiastical province, which includes the dioceses of Ponta Grossa and Jacarezinho, as well as the *prelature nullius* of Foz do Iguassú and Palmas.
The archdiocese of C. covers approximately 31,298 square kilometers, of which about 500,000 are Catholics, with 39 parishes, 24 diocesan priests, and 114 religious (Basilian, Capuchin, Claretian, Franciscan, Josephite, Lazarist, Divine Word Missionaries, Passionist, Redemptorist); it also has 8 female congregations (1948). It also has a good minor seminary. The titular feast of the archdiocese is the Nativity of Mary, celebrated on September 8.
The city of C. is an important road hub for communications with Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, and is connected to the port of Paranaguá by a railway.
The colonization of Paraná began as a stopover for the advance of Portuguese-Brazilian conquests southward. The earliest foundations date back to the cities of Paranaguá in 1644 and C. in 1693. For administrative and geographical reasons, all southern regions, including Paraná, remained under the jurisdiction of Rio de Janeiro during the colonial period, both for civil and ecclesiastical governance. This explains why, even after independence and the establishment of the diocese of Porto Alegre (1848), Paraná belonged to the diocese of Rio, a situation that lasted until the apostolic constitution *Ad universas orbis Ecclesias* of April 27, 1892, which made C. a suffragan see of Rio and later of São Paulo (with the constitution *Divini Pastoris* of June 7, 1908). Finally, C. became a metropolitan see on May 9, 1926, with the bull *Quum in dies* of Pius XI, which divided its territory among the newly created dioceses of Ponta Grossa, Jacarezinho, and the prelature of Foz do Iguassú, to which that of Palmas was added in 1945. Former bishops of C. were José de Camargo Barros (1894–1904); Duarte Leopoldo Silva (1904–1907); João Francisco Braga (1907–1935), one of Brazil’s greatest sacred orators; and Attico Eusébio da Rocha, the current archbishop since 1936.
C. possesses notable sacred monuments, such as the cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Light and the church of the Third Order of St. Francis. Several Catholic newspapers are published in the archdiocese.
Maurilio Cesar de Lima