GUNTUR, Diocese of. - It was established on 13 February 1940, detaching its territory from the diocese of Nellore, and was entrusted to the indigenous clergy. It is part of south-eastern India, and specifically of the province of Madras. It faces the Gulf of Bengal and is a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Madras. It measures 9,211 sq km and embraces the entire civil district of G. It borders on the dioceses of Nellore, Hyderabad and Bezwada.
The see city of the diocese has about 85,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,100 profess the Catholic religion. The whole diocese has 2,277,283 inhabitants, and almost all of them are of Telugu language and stock: a stock that derives from the Dravidian family, so important in the history of the Deccan between 235 B.C. and 220 A.D. The vast majority of the inhabitants follow Hinduism; there are 183,298 Mohammedans, 260,000 Protestants and 36,859 Catholics with more than 3,000 catechumens. The territory of the diocese of G. embraces 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 with residence of the parish priest and a well-defined territory. There are 25 churches and 169 chapels.
The personnel carrying out missionary activity is composed as follows: 42 indigenous priests, 124 nuns for the most part Indian, 145 catechists and 45 female catechists, 164 masters and 147 mistresses. There is a minor seminary which at present (statistics of 1950) has about twenty pupils; some ten young men are preparing for the priesthood in the major seminaries of Kandy, Alwaye, and Trichinopoly. Instruction is given to the young 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, 2 industrial schools with 104. The diocese also maintains 5 orphanages with 299 boys and 434 girls, 1 hospital with 210 beds. It also possesses a printing press. The scarcity of financial means and the small number of priests prevent a wider work and a more profitable output.