JARO (ST ELIZABETH), DIOCESE OF
A city and diocese on the island of Panay, in the province of Iloilo, in the Philippine archipelago.
It has an area of approximately 17,579 sq km, with a population of 2,345,050, of whom 1,856,035 are Catholics, distributed across 125 parishes, served by 135 diocesan priests and 75 regular clergy, one seminary, three male religious communities and seven female religious communities (1949).
The diocese was erected by Pope Pius IX on 27 May 1865, by separating territory from the diocese of Cebu. Its first bishop was the Dominican M. Cuartero y Medina.
BIBL.: J. P. McCloskey, s.V. in Cath. Enc., VIII, pp. 323-324; Enc. Eur. Ann., XXVIII, p. 2573. Enrico Josi