CURITIBA, ARCHDIOCESE of. — In the State of Paraná, Brazil, it is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of the same name, which comprises the dioceses of Ponta Grossa and Jacarezinho, in addition to the prelatures nullius of Foz de Iguassú and Palmas.
The archdiocese of C. has approximately 31,298 sq. km. of surface area and approximately 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 400,000 are Catholics; 39 parishes; 24 diocesan priests and 114 religious (Basilian, Capuchin, Claretian, Franciscan, Josephite, Lazarist, Divine Word missionary, Passionist, and Redemptorist); in addition, 8 women’s congregations (1948). It also has a good minor seminary. The titular feast of the archdiocese is the Nativity of Mary, celebrated on 8 September.
The city of C. is an important road junction for communications with Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, and is connected with the port of Paranagua by railway.
The colonization of Paraná arose as a staging post in the advance of the southern Portuguese-Brazilian conquests. The earliest foundations were the cities of Paranagua in 1644 and C. in 1693. For geographical and administrative reasons, all the regions of the South, including Paraná, remained subject to the jurisdiction of Rio de Janeiro during the colonial period, both for civil and ecclesiastical government. This explains why, even after independence and the establishment of the bishopric of Porto Alegre (1848), Paraná belonged to the diocese of Rio, a situation that lasted until the Ad universae orbis Ecclesiae of 27 April 1892, which established C. as a suffragan see of Rio and subsequently of S. Paulo (with the Dioecesium nimiam amplitudinem of 7 June 1908). Finally, C. became a metropolitan see on 9 May 1926 through the Quum in dies of Pius XI, which divided its territory among the dioceses of Ponta Grossa and Jacarezinho and the prelature of Foz de Iguassú, then created; that of Palmas was added in 1945. The bishops of C. were José de Camargo Barros (1894–1904); Duarte Leopoldo Silva (1904–1907); João Francisco Braga (1907–35), one of the greatest Brazilian sacred orators; and Attico Eusebio da Rocha, the current archbishop since 1936.
C. possesses valuable sacred monuments, such as the cathedral dedicated to N. Signora de Luz and the church of the Franciscan Third Order. Several Catholic newspapers are published in the archdiocese.