JUIZ DE FORA, DIOCESE OF. - A city and diocese in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
It has an area of 15,269 sq. km. with 558,000 inhabitants, of whom 550,000 are Catholics. It comprises 55 parishes, served by 47 diocesan priests and 47 religious priests, one seminary, 5 male religious communities and 29 female (1949).
The diocese was created by Pope Pius XI with the apostolic constitution *Ad sacrosancti apostolatus* of 1 February 1924, by separating it from the archdiocese of Mariana, and raising the parish church of St Anthony of Padua to the status of cathedral.
BIBL.: AAS, 16 (1924), pp. 421-423. Enrico Josi