GREAT FALLS, Diocese of. — A city in the State of Montana, United States. It comprises the following counties in the eastern part of the State of Montana: Big Horn, Blaine, Carbon, Carter, Cascade, Choteau, Custer, Dawson, Daniels, Fallon, Fergus, Hill, Garfield, Golden Valley, Judith Basin, Liberty, McCone, Musselshell, Park, Petroleum, Phillips, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Treasure, Valley, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. The name of the diocese is most appropriate because here the Missouri River makes a fall of about 28 m. in a series of cascades which are exploited for hydroelectric power and irrigation. The region is very rich in minerals.
In 1850 the first to evangelize the area were the Jesuit De Smet with other companions, while in Montana the same Fathers had established missions for the Indians as early as 1841. The diocese was erected by Pius X on 18 May 1904, and its first bishop was Mgr. M. C. Lenihan (d. 1943). The diocese is a suffragan of Portland in Oregon. The cathedral of St Anne was dedicated on 15 December 1907.
The diocese has an area of 94,158 square miles with a population of 288,600 inhabitants, of whom 40,200 are Catholics, distributed in 57 parishes, with 158 churches, 34 chapels, 104 missions, served by 83 diocesan priests and 21 regular clergy. In the diocese there are four male religious communities (Premonstratensians, Capuchins, Jesuits, Redemptorists) and ten female ones; for the education of youth there are: the College of Great Falls, 6 parochial high schools and 2 private ones; 13 parochial elementary schools; in 1946 there were 261 conversions.
GREECE — 1) Continued as a State; 2) Continued as an ecclesiastical circumscription; 3) Railways.