DACCA, DIOCESE of. - It is suffragan to Calcutta and entrusted to the Congregation of the Holy Cross. It has an area of 44,485 sq. km. and a population of 18 million inhabitants, of whom 13,610,000 are Mohammedans, 4,300,000 pagans, 35,000 Catholics, and 12,000 Protestants. It derives from the former apostolic vicariate of Eastern Bengal. On 1 September 1886 it was erected as a diocese. By the Additional Convention between the Holy See and Portugal (29 June 1929), 4 parishes of the diocese of S. Tommaso di Meliapor were annexed to the diocese of D.
It is situated in East Pakistan (East Bengal) and includes the civil districts of D., Pubna, Mymensing, Tipperah, and the small former independent State of Hill Tipperah. Thirty priests work there, together with 15 brothers of the Congregation of the Holy Cross and 25 native priests. About 20 pupils study in the minor seminary, while others study in the major seminary at Ranchi. There are 22 parishes. There are also about 50 foreign nuns and an equal number of Indian nuns in the schools and charitable institutions: one hospital, 8 orphanages, one shelter, and many dispensaries; there are 100 catechists, 37 women catechists, 186 male teachers and 107 female teachers, and more than 10,000 boys and girls in the various schools. Conversions amount to about five hundred a year. It borders on the dioceses of Chittagong, Krishnagar, Dinajpur, and Shillong.