DILI, DIOCESI of. — On the island of Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. It is the capital city of the Portuguese colony of Timor, that is, of the eastern part of the island, which is the largest of those in the Lesser Sunda group. The island was discovered in 1522 by the companions of Magellan and occupied by the Portuguese. Part of the island was taken by the Dutch in the middle of the seventeenth century.
Catholicism entered the island with the Portuguese; ecclesiastically, the Catholics depend on Macao. The suppression of the religious Orders in Portugal caused considerable damage to the mission. By virtue of the missionary agreement between the Holy See and the Portuguese Republic of 7 May 1940 (AAS, 22 [1940], p. 238, art. 6), Pope Pius XII, in his apostolic constitution Solemnibus conventionibus, dated 4 September of the same year, separated from the diocese of Macao the portion of the island of Timor belonging to Portugal and erected it as a diocese, with its see in the city of D.; the church of the Immaculate Conception was raised to cathedral status. The diocese is suffragan to Goa (AAS, 23 [1941], pp. 14–18).
The diocese covers an area of 19,000 sq km, with 420,430 inhabitants, of whom 35,001 are Catholics; it has 49 churches, 11 parishes, 19 diocesan priests, and 5 religious priests; two religious houses for men with 12 professed members and three for women with 23 nuns; 27 educational institutions for boys with 2,509 pupils and three for girls with 351 pupils (1948). Enrico Josi