KRISHNAGAR, diocese of. — The mission of K. was begun in the middle of the last century, in 1855, through the work of the missionaries of the Lombard Seminary (now the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions of Milan). After the apostolic prefecture of Central Bengal was erected on 28 June 1870, by separation from the apostolic vicariate of Western and Eastern Bengal, it was subsequently elevated to a diocese on 1 Sept. 1886 and constituted a suffragan diocese, under the name of K., of the archdiocese of Calcutta on 7 June 1887. Divided in two by the Ganges, with Santali to the north and Bengalis to the south, its southern part was evangelized first; the missionaries then concentrated their efforts on the northern part, which was separated on 25 May 1927 to establish the diocese of Dinajpur, entrusted to the aforementioned Institute. The remaining territory of the diocese of K. was administered for a short time by the bishop of Dinajpur, until the Salesians assumed responsibility for the mission in 1928.
It lies partly in India and partly in East Pakistan. It has an area of 34,490 sq. km. and borders the archdiocese of Calcutta, of which it is a suffragan, and the dioceses of Dinajpur, Dacca, and Chittagong. The population reaches nearly 8,000,000 souls, of whom 4,500,000 are Muslims, 3,382,000 Hindus, 48,000 animists, and 12,000 Protestants. There are 8,000 Catholics; in addition to 480 catechumens, they are almost all indigenous, farmers or agricultural laborers. A good half of them are converts or children of converts from Islam; the others come from Hinduism.
The diocesan territory is ecclesiastically divided into 6 parishes, 1 primary station, and 14 secondary stations; there are 5 churches and 42 chapels. Twenty priests, all Salesians and for the most part Italian, and 6 brothers work there. About fifty nuns, more than half of them Indian, 25 catechists, and 40 baptizers assist the missionaries in their particularly arduous apostolate. Instruction is provided in 3 elementary schools with 420 pupils, 3 middle schools with 527 students, 2 secondary schools with 687 pupils, and 2 vocational schools with 81 apprentices. Charitable works consist of 5 orphanages with 451 orphans, 3 dispensaries, 2 homes for widows with 42 women, and 2 foundling homes with 32 children. There is no seminary properly speaking; nevertheless, 2 indigenous seminarians and 3 scholastics are being prepared for the priesthood. The mission has several pious associations and about ten confraternities.
The portion of the territory politically belonging to East Pakistan, and provisionally still included in the diocese of K., will help to form the future diocese of Jessore, a suffragan of Dacca, while the diocese of K. will continue to belong to the ecclesiastical province of Calcutta.