CUTTACK, Diocese of. - Suffragan of Madras (India), it is entrusted to the Spanish missionaries of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists). Its territory was dismembered from the diocese of Vizagapatam (v.) in 1928 and erected as a mission sui iuris, later elevated to a diocese on June 1, 1937.

It has an area of 32,000 sq km and its inhabitants number more than 4 million. The population, of Oriya stock and language, is concentrated in the fertile and flat coastal strip; in the mountains, by contrast, live some hundreds of thousands of aborigines of Khond stock and Kui language. 90% of the inhabitants follow Hinduism; the other percentage is made up of 30,000 Muslims, 10,000 Protestants, 12,109 baptized Catholics and 2,805 catechumens (1948 statistics). The priests number 25, all Lazarists, assisted by 4 brothers, 32 sisters, 37 catechists and 130 teachers. There are 5 districts, 6 quasi-parishes, 5 primary stations and 97 secondary stations with 7 churches and 65 chapels. Besides a small preparatory seminary with 27 students, the diocese maintains 50 elementary schools with 2,112 pupils, 2 middle schools with 308 pupils, 2 high schools with 400 pupils, and 4 orphanages with 304 inmates. A periodical is published there: Queen of the Mission, in 3,000 copies.

Within the boundaries of the diocese are Bhubaneswar with its 500 Hindu sanctuaries, and Puri with the famous temple of Jagannath, to which about 6,000 Brahmin priests and several thousand dancing girls are permanently attached: it is one of the principal places of pilgrimage of the pagans of India.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Murray, Handbook for India Burma and Ceylon, London 1929, p. 510; GM, p. 144; Catholic Directory of India, Burma and Ceylon, Madras 1948, pp. 164A-164D; Archivio di Prop. Fide, Prospectus status missionis, pos. n. prot. 5332/48; MC, p. 91.

Valentino Belgeri

@incollection{ec4_cuttack_diocesi_di, author = {Belgeri, Valentino}, title = {Cuttack, diocesi di}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1099--1100}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cuttack-diocesi-di} }

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Cuttack, Diocese of

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