JARO (SANT'ELISABETTA), DIOCESE of. — City and diocese on the island of Panay, province of Iloilo, in the Philippine archipelago.
It has an area of approximately 17,579 sq km, with 2,345,050 inhabitants, of whom 1,856,035 are Catholics, distributed among 125 parishes, with 135 diocesan priests and 75 religious priests, one seminary, 3 male and 7 female religious communities (1949).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX on 27 May 1865, through the division of the diocese of Cebu. Its first bishop was the Dominican M. Cuartero y Medina.
BIBL.: J. P. Mc Closkey, s. V. in Cath. Enc., VIII, pp. 323–324; Enc. Eur. Am., XXVIII, p. 2573. Enrico Josi