HUARAZ, Diocese of. – Diocese and capital city of the homonymous province in Peru (South America).
It has an area of 42,908 sq. km., with a population of 650,000, of whom 645,000 are Catholic; it comprises 60 parishes, with 53 diocesan priests and 13 religious, a seminary, 4 male religious communities and 3 female religious communities (1949). The diocese was established by Pope Leo XIII on 8 May 1899; the first bishop was Francisco de Sales Soto. It is a suffragan of Lima.
BIBL.: S. I. Quinn, s. V. in Cath. Enc., VII, p. 506; Enc. Eur. Am., XXVIII, p. 505.