GUNTUR, DIOCESE of. — It was established on 13 February 1940 by detaching its territory from the diocese of Nellore, and was entrusted to the indigenous clergy. It forms part of south-eastern India, specifically of the province of Madras. It faces the Bay of Bengal and is suffragan to the metropolitan see of Madras. It covers 9,211 sq. km. and encompasses the entire civil district of G. It borders the dioceses of Nellore, Hyderabad, and Bezwada.
The diocesan capital has approximately 85,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,100 profess the Catholic religion. The diocese as a whole has 2,277,283 inhabitants, and almost all are Telugu-speaking and of Telugu stock—a people descended from the Dravidian stock, so important in the history of the Deccan between 235 B.C. and A.D. 220. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants follow Hinduism; there are 183,298 Muslims, 260,000 Protestants, and 36,859 Catholics, as well as more than 3,000 catechumens. The territory of the diocese of G. comprises only the civil district of the same name, which is divided into 9 different Taluks. Ecclesiastically, the mission is divided into 23 regularly constituted parishes, each with a parish priest in residence and clearly defined territory. There are 25 churches and 169 chapels.
The personnel engaged in missionary activity is composed as follows: 42 indigenous priests, 124 nuns, for the most part Indian, 145 male catechists and 45 female catechists, 164 male teachers and 147 female teachers. There is a minor seminary which currently (1950 statistics) has about twenty students; some ten young men are preparing for the priesthood in the major seminaries of Kandy, Alwaye, and Trichinopoly. Education for young people is provided in 89 primary schools with a total of 7,074 pupils, 5 middle schools with 988 students, 3 secondary schools with approximately 1,500 pupils, and 2 industrial schools with 104. The diocese also maintains 5 orphanages with 299 boys and 434 girls, and 1 hospital with 210 beds. It also owns a printing press. The scarcity of financial resources and the small number of priests prevent more extensive work and more fruitful results.