GUNTUR, DIOCESE OF
The Diocese of Guntur was established on 13 February 1940 by separating its territory from the Diocese of Nellore and was entrusted to the indigenous clergy. It is part of south-eastern India, specifically the Madras Province. It faces the Bay of Bengal and is a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Madras. It covers 9,211 square kilometers and includes the entire civil district of Guntur. It borders the dioceses of Nellore, Hyderabad, and Bezwada.
The diocesan seat has approximately 85,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,100 are Catholic. The entire diocese has 2,277,283 inhabitants, the vast majority of whom speak Telugu and belong to the Telugu ethnic group, which derives from the Dravidian stock so significant in the history of the Deccan between 235 BC and AD 220. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants follow Hinduism; there are 183,298 Muslims, 260,000 Protestants, and 36,859 Catholics, along with more than 3,000 catechumens. The territory of the Diocese of Guntur comprises only the civil district of the same name, which is divided into nine different Taluks. Ecclesiastically, the mission is divided into 23 regularly constituted parishes with resident pastors and clearly defined territories. There are 25 churches and 169 chapels.
The personnel engaged in missionary activity consists of: 42 indigenous priests, 124 sisters, most of them Indian, 145 male catechists and 45 female catechists, 64 male teachers and 147 female teachers. There is a minor seminary which, according to 1950 statistics, has about twenty students; about ten young men are preparing for the priesthood in the major seminaries of Kandy, Alwaye, and Trichinopoly. Instruction for the youth is provided in 89 elementary schools with a total of 7,074 pupils, 5 middle schools with 988 students, 3 high schools with about 1,500 pupils, and 5 industrial schools with 104 pupils. The diocese also maintains orphanages with 299 boys and 434 girls, and a hospital with 210 beds. It also owns a printing press. The scarcity of financial resources and the limited number of priests hinder more extensive work and more fruitful results.